Member Article

No vacancies - Lancashire hotel chain’s record summer season

The summer holidays may have drawn to a close, but Lancashire-based hotel chain Choice Hotels is feeling sunny after a record season across all five hotels in the group.

Bookings were up by 10% at the company’s three Blackpool hotels (The Cliff, The Claremont and The Viking) and also at its Lake District Properties (The Keswick and The Patterdale), with all five hotels booked to full capacity throughout July and August.

Choice Hotels was also able to secure all its summer bookings in advance, maximising the revenue potential of its assets over the summer by achieving full room rate for every guest.

Eddie Nelder, director at Choice Hotels, commented: “Vacant rooms can be a massive cost in the hotel business so many hotel chains are forced to sell that capacity at a reduced rate - which affects their bottom line.

“Achieving 100% advance bookings throughout July and August across all five of our properties not only proves that we are getting the formula for comfort, cost and quality right, it also means that we can continue to offer guests great value for money thanks to our profitable business model.”

Choice Hotels offers a mix of accommodation across its five properties. The company has two family-friendly hotels in Blackpool, ‘The Cliffs’ and ‘The Claremont’, both of which offer an indoor pool and kids club, alongside its adults only ‘The Viking’ with its 350-seat venue and nightly cabaret shows.

In the Lake District, guests are welcomed to more traditional settings that enable them to make the most of their location and relax in comfort after a day enjoying the outdoors.

Mr Nelder added: “We have a relatively small portfolio of hotels but have designed them to ensure that we appeal to a wide demographic across the group.

“Thanks to good weather during the summers of 2013 and 2014 as well as concerns about passport delays, many people have opted to take holidays in the UK this summer.

“Our approach has enabled us to capitalise on those market conditions and booking levels for next summer are already high across the group.

“This demonstrates, once again, that we’re offering a hotel product that’s in tune with what customers are looking for.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .