Edinburgh’s top spot in UK for hotel performance

Edinburgh has grabbed top spot in the UK for the performance of its hotels, making it a “highly sought-after” market for investors.

Publishing its annual UK Hotel Market Index, commercial property consultancy Colliers said the Scottish capital had been ranked number one due to its strong performance in both occupancy and average daily room (ADR) rate during 2023, as well as its “impressive” revenue per available room – REVPAR – growth since 2019. After its initial entry into the top ten during last year’s index, Inverness has continued its ascent up the ranks, now firmly established in third place.

Colliers said this growth had been supported by the “increasingly strong appeal of Scottish destinations to visitors” which has resulted in solid performance metrics, together with a limited pipeline of new hotels under construction and favourable build and land costs.

Marc Finney, head of hotels, resorts and consulting at Colliers, said: “The data i reveals the ever-evolving nature of the UK hotels market. Our index is formulated in such a way that high land and construction costs and sluggish hotel market growth are penalised. That’s why some markets will rank lower than expected.

“Of course, this is a general market index and sitespecific factors, and market condition, will lead to significant variances. What has been interesting to note this year has been the shift back to the city break as opposed to the countryside staycations which were popular during the pandemic.”

Among the other cities in the top ten, Belfast took second place, while London took seventh spot and Glasgow was placed eighth.