Hotel

British Hotelier Millennium & Copthorne Q1 Rooms Revenue Falls

By Dave Simpson
British Hotelier Millennium & Copthorne Q1 Rooms Revenue Falls

Britain's Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) said group revenue per room for the first quarter fell 3.1%, blaming weakness in the hotel markets in London and Europe.

UK room demand has been hurt by a string of militant attacks over the last two years and as traditional hotel operators face competition from holiday home rental start-ups like Airbnb.

Europe revenue per available room (RevPAR) dropped 4.2% in the quarter, while London RevPAR sank 9.4%, the company said.

The operator of the Millennium, Grand Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate hotels said London performance was affected by partial closure of the Millennium Hotel London Mayfair for refurbishment.

However, excluding the impact of the closure, RevPAR for London was still down 3.1%.

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The hotelier said group RevPAR in the quarter fell to £68.5 million from £70.7 million.

M&C was the target of an unsuccessful £2 billion buyout offer last year by its chairman and Singaporean billionaire, Kwek Leng Beng.

In January, Kwek's City Developments Ltd, M&C's majority investor, failed to secure 50% threshold acceptances for its £2 billion offer after minority shareholders blocked the acquisition.

News by Reuters, edited by Hospitality Ireland. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.