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Sentiment Tracker Survey ( November 2016 ), which track the changes in operator sentiment compared to their August survey . The key findings for the UK serviced apartment sector were :
Overall , operators are more optimistic about business for the next 12 months than they were in August .
Consistently strong occupancy levels , averaging 82.6 % in the 12 months to October 2016 , have enabled Edinburgh hoteliers to leverage rates across the majority of segments , illustrated by the increase in the achieved rate in the corporate (+ 6.4 %) and leisure (+ 14.9 %) segments this month , but it was the Best Available Rate segment which achieved the biggest increase in October , at 12.2 %, to £ 120.65 .
The strong demand for hotel accommodation is a direct reflection of the continued success of Edinburgh Airport , which handled 1.1 million passengers in October , a 12.5 % year-onyear increase on the same period in 2015 , of which the number of international passengers increased by 23.6 %.
Despite year-to-date increases in both payroll (+ 6.5 %) and overheads (+ 1.4 %), a 7.3 % increase in total revenue has helped Edinburgh hoteliers record profit growth of 9.8 %, to £ 53.89 .
Serviced apartment operators optimistic for 2017
The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers ( ASAP ) and Savills have released results for the sector from their Operator
28 % reported they are accelerating their expansion plans ( compared to 13.3 % in August ); the majority ( 60 %) were making no change to their existing plans , but an increased proportion of 12.8 % were scaling back their plans
The operational outlook is mixed , with the general trend suggesting that operators expect both year end occupancy and ADR to be down on 2015 , which is reflected in the latest STR data for the sector ( UK occupancy down 2.6 % at end October , year to date ); however , this is an improvement on August : 30 % of operators in November expected their 2016 occupancy to be up ( compared to 20 % in August )
James Foice , Chief Executive of the ASAP comments :
“ It ’ s encouraging to see that , in spite of the operating challenges we ’ ve experienced in 2016 in terms of occupancy and ADR , operators are now at the end of the year feeling more positive in terms of the outlook for business performance for 2017 than they were back in August . And it ’ s especially good to see over 28 % of operators reporting that they are accelerating their expansion plans . The pipeline of new serviced apartment / aparthotel developments for the UK in 2017 looks very strong , with over 2,000 units due to open next year .”