Cutbacks in business trips leave hotels feeling pinch

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Five-star hotels, including The Dorchester, the Mandarin Oriental and the Four Seasons, saw a 17 per cent decrease in bookings last month compared with September last year.

Four-star hotels saw a four per cent decline and three-star hotels experienced a five per cent decrease during the same period.

In August, at the height of the holiday season, the number of bookings made at five-star hotels dropped by nine per cent. Every month so far this year, apart from April, has seen a downturn in the number of people checking into the city's hotels.

Five-star hotels across the capital have seen a six per cent decrease in bookings from January to September this year compared with the same period last year.

The figures, released by STR Global, a leader in providing market data on the hotel industry, and based on numbers from 87 hotels in London, are believed to reflect a downturn in the number of business travellers to Britain.

Jamie Chappell, managing director of STR Global, said: "Corporate travel will certainly be declining and those hotels reliant on corporate customers will definitely suffer."

Russell Ketts, managing director of specialist hotel consultancy HVS International, said: "With not as many deals being made and transaction activity low, there is not as much occasion to travel as there used to be. Those people who normally attend conferences are looking carefully at expenditure and as a result they are not travelling as much."

He added that things are expected to get worse next year. "I foresee more significant declines in the first quarter of next year," said Mr Ketts. "It's an inevitability, unfortunately."