Survey Reports on Market Demand and Consumer Trends Across 30 Major Hotel Markets

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. July 08, 2013

BDRC Continental is a specialist research firm with a division dedicated to the global hospitality industry. The company conducts annual 'Hotel Guest Surveys' in 35 countries worldwide among nationally representative samples of business and leisure hotel guests domiciled in each country. Surveys report on hotel brand health performance and demand-side trends.

Survey #1 - Great Britain

July 8, 2013 - The British hotel industry faces a challenging year, with lingering economic uncertainty keeping pressure on the sector.

The downturn in the corporate market was mitigated last year by a strong domestic short leisure-break market, partly driven by the London Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but the lack of such one-off spectaculars this time around means tough trading conditions will continue to act as a drag on the sector.

Fragile business confidence, problems within the eurozone and continued pressure on households' disposable income are all contributing to the situation, and the industry itself is predicting a 2% fall in revenue per available room (RevPAR) during 2013.

Premier Inn - Britain's largest economy-tier chain - overtook Hilton, the established market-leader, to become the most widely used brand for business travel, highlighting the value-conscious attitude of an increasing number of travelers.

And there is fresh evidence that operators looking to stabilise and grow their business need to focus on customer satisfaction, with social media playing an increasingly important role within the bookings process.

More than 80% of British business travellers now use the likes of Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor, and more than one in five uses social media to help inform their choice of hotel. Mobile technology is fulfilling its early potential as a channel through which hotels can interact with their (potential) guests.

Mobile technology is finally realising its early potential to change consumer behaviour. The survey reports big increases in the use of smartphones for initial searches, reviewing hotel facilities and making the booking, making the mobile-friendliness of hotel websites an increasingly important factor.

On a similar technological note, free wifi access in hotels is the top priority for business guests.

BDRC Continental director Matt Costin said: “As ever, it is vital for senior decision-makers to understand the business implications of these changes and to put the voice of the customer at the heart of their strategic decision-making.”

Statistics from the British Hotel Guest Survey illustrate the growing importance of the leisure market to overall demand in that market.

During the year to February 2013, the total number of domestic British room nights fell by about 1%. Leisure stays saw an increase of 8%, from 49 million room nights to 53 million, but business stays fell sharply - down a similar percentage, from 58 million nights to 53 million.

In the leisure sector, the rise in the number of stays will have been helped by a growing number of cash-strapped consumers staying in the UK rather than travelling overseas and by the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee. (As well as an increase in the overall number of nights spent in hotels, the number of individual domestic leisure travellers also rose significantly, from 15 million to 16.5 million.)

Indeed, the crucial role played by those two London-centred events is highlighted in the research. Average room rates rose in the capital by about 4%, to £138, but outside London the rise was much smaller, lifting just 0.9%, to £59.

The growth in the number of domestic leisure nights comes despite a significant fall in the number of long-stay nights. These fell from 15 million nights in 2011 to 10 million last year.

The picture is much gloomier with business stays. The number of domestic travellers declined - down from 4.4 million to 4.1 million in the two years to February 2013. The average number of nights stayed by these people has also fallen, from 13.2 a year to 12.9 over the same period.

It seems that businesses are increasingly focusing on whether they can justify overnight stays, and the length of any trips they do make. With business confidence remaining fairly static and commentators predicting a decline in RevPAR in 2013, the British market is likely to remain a challenging one for hoteliers.

In terms of brand performance, across a composite index of measures, Hilton remains the British market leader, but Premier Inn is now a genuine threat having climbed from rapidly in recent years. Accor's midscale brand, Mercure, wins the accolade of 'Most Improved Brand' having recorded big increases in brand recognition, following its recent expansion in the UK.

Note to editors:

This release uses findings from The 2013 British Hotel Guest Survey by BDRC Continental, which was conducted amongst 1,000 business travellers and 1,000 leisure travellers, representative of the hotel-staying British population. The fieldwork took place in February 2013. Equivalent surveys are conducted by BDRC Continental in 35 of the world's most significant hotel markets, across 5 continents.

About BDRC Continental

BDRC Continental is an award-winning insight agency. We help our clients get closer to their customers by translating data into actionable business intelligence. We do this through our range of market-leading insight tools, a dedicated suite of advanced analytics and over two decades of experience working with leading service sector brands across the globe. Established in 1991, we have an unrivalled reputation as a full service research consultancy with specialist expertise across a number of sectors including hotels, meetings & hospitality, financial services, media & advertising, Government & not for profit, culture & leisure, tourism, travel & transport and sports & sponsorship. As well as undertaking bespoke research for a wide variety of clients, we conduct a number of syndicated studies and have developed proprietary techniques including Tracktion, Grapevine, Service Intensity, the Business Opinion Omnibus, SME Finance Monitor and ZMET Visionary Thinking. www.bdrc-continental.com

Matthew Costin, is the Global Director (Hotels & Hospitality) of BDRC Continental, a market research consultancy specialising in the hotels and hospitality sector. In more than a decade at BDRC, Mr. Costin has worked with many of the world's leading hospitality companies, such as IHG, Hilton, Starwood and Marriott. He is an expert in the fields of brand equity and customer experience and is also a recognised authority on the meetings and conference sector. Mr. Costin joined BDRC in 2002, having started his insight career two years earlier with Abacus Research, where he worked mainly for clients in the financial services and media verticals. At BDRC, he assumed responsibility for the agency's work in the rapidly growing meetings and conference sector. In addition to overseeing the BDRC Meetings Market Survey programmes, Mr. Costin launched VenueVerdict, a suite of hospitality customer experience management and competitor benchmarking applications that has now been adopted by hotel companies in more than 70 countries worldwide. In 2008, Mr. Costin was promoted to BDRC's senior management team and appointed to head up the company's global Hotels & Hospitality research practise, which operates out of BDRC's head office in London as well as regional offices in Singapore, Beijing and Sydney. Alongside his management responsibilities, he retains a hands-on role with custom hotel research and consultancy assignments, as well as BDRC's global Hotel Guest Survey and Meetings Market Survey program. Mr. Costin has a MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and holds an MBA from Henley Business School. Mr. Costin can be contacted at +44 (0)20 7400 1004 or [email protected]