Using indicators such as occupancy and revenue-per-room the Colliers’ UK Hotel Market Index ranked Liverpool third out of 34 cities behind only Edinburgh and Belfast. Tony McDonough
Liverpool is now a UK hotspot for hotel investment with a new index putting it in the top three UK cities thanks to rising room occupancy and revenue-per-room (RevPar).
On Monday, property experts Colliers International published the Colliers’ UK Hotel Market Index which looks at nine key performance indicators in 34 cities in the UK and consolidates them into a single ranking.
Liverpool came third in the index behind only Edinburgh and Belfast and rising from eighth in 2017. The city was ranked fourth for occupancy, behind only London, Edinburgh and Oxford, with a rate of 81.8% in 2018, up from 78.7% in 2017.
It ranked number one for RevPar with average annual growth of 7.3 per cent in revenue per available room over the past four years, higher than Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and Plymouth. And in terms of costs of development Liverpool was third, coming behind Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Significant growth
In 2008, the year when Liverpool was European Capital of Culture, the city was home to 37 hotels, providing 3,726 rooms. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been invested into the sector since then and the city now boasts almost 70 city centre hotels/apart hotels and guest houses offering 8,731 rooms with another 878 in the pipeline.
Among the latest hotels to open is the Hotel by EPIC in Seel Street, developed by Elliot Group at a cost of £20m and offering 128 rooms. And work is due to start this summer on a four-star, 160-bedroom hotel and 60-bedroom aparthotel in Liverpool’s £1bn Paddington Village.
Manchester also performs well, with the city having a strong pipeline of hotel rooms becoming available over the next two years. It has a current supply of 18,754 rooms and an active pipeline of another 2,210 rooms.
Rising star
Chester emerges as the most improved hotel market, being ranked number one in the category of rising stars, ahead of Gloucester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Brighton, representing a marked rise for the historic centre from 11th position in the 2017 Index.
Rising from 11th to fourth in the overall index, key factors behind Chester’s success in both tables include growth in occupancy levels at its hotels and lower build costs when compared to other locations.
Marc Finney, head of hotels and resorts consulting at Colliers International, said: “This year’s Index shows a strong performance for the North West of England, with Liverpool’s active pipeline ranking improving by eight spots bringing it into third place.
“This is mainly due to strong growth in both occupancy and average daily room rate, resulting in the highest four-year RevPAR trend, combined with improved market appetite and relatively low land site prices.”