HOTELS UK hotels facing increasing costs
THE LATEST REPORT FROM HOTSTATS shows that UK hotels are experiencing a continuing upward revenue trend, but they also face increasing costs. The market achieved a 2.1 per cent increase in RevPAR
(revenue per available room) to £94.20 in October 2017. Hotstats attributes the increase to a 2.4 per cent boost in average room rate and says it comes despite a slight decline in occupancy to 81.1 per cent. Furthermore, room revenue was supported by a 1.1 per cent increase in food and beverage, a 4.9 per cent uptake in conference and banqueting, and a 2.4 per cent improvement in leisure. However, marginal levels of revenue growth were outpaced
by increasing costs, leading to a decline in profit conversion across a number of departments. Food and beverage dropped 1.2 percentage points to 34.8 per cent as a result of increases in cost of sales, as well as payroll, which was up 4.3 per cent. It’s not all bad news, though, as Hotstats reports UK hotels achieved a 1.1 per cent increase in gross operating profit per available room to £58.77 in October. This is equal to a profit conversion of 40.4 per cent of total revenue, down only 0.3 percentage points from 2016.
BREXIT
Home Affairs Committee warns of ‘border chaos’
THE PARLIAMENTARY HOME AFFAIRS COMMITTEE has raised concerns that the UK could face ‘chaos’ at its borders if the government fails to come up with contingency plans. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said in September that it
would need an additional 5,000 staff to deal with new customs checks that could come into effect when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. Its concerns were mostly focused on the Dover- Calais route and other ports of entry.
A report by the committee shows the proposed increase in staff isn’t sufficient and the UK faces traffic jams at its borders – similar to those in June 2015 when French ferry operators went on strike and Operation Stack was put in place – if the government fails to plan for rapid changes. It raised concerns that Border Force employees might be diverted from immigration into customs, putting security at risk. The committee is calling on the government to publish detailed plans on border operations after Brexit, which should include contingencies for additional staffing and infrastructure, new processes for business and the cost of implementing these plans. Committee chair Yvette Cooper MP said: “The government
should be aiming for transition arrangements which require no change at all in customs and border requirements, as everyone is running out of time to make any staffing, infrastructure or procedural changes – and they risk long delays at the border, both in the UK and abroad. “As things stand, the government is running the risk of celebrating their first day of Brexit with the sight of queues of lorries stretching for miles in Kent and gridlock on the roads of Northern Ireland, which would be incredibly damaging to the UK economy and completely unacceptable to the country.”
20 BBT January/February 2018
IN CONVERSATION Q&A: Linda Jojo, United Airlines
BBT talked to Linda Jojo, executive vice-president of technology and chief digital officer at United Airlines, to find out more about the airline’s continued development of its app
What are you working on for the next stage of the United app?
There’s a lot of space that’s not being used at the moment, so what we want is for the app to know more about what you need contextually, so rather than navigating to your boarding pass, we want the app to bring it up automatically as you approach points in your journey when you need it. When you’re on the plane, we want it to show you in-flight entertainment options, then when you land it might show you where to pick up your bags. How do you manage data security in relation to your app? It’s something we take very seriously. For a long time, the top priority for airlines has been operating safely, and now up there with that is data security. We think about the two in similar ways; we collaborate with partners and work with other suppliers to come up with contingencies for various situations. Every year we commit more to cyber security and we learn about new threats that we need to watch out for. How do you engage with customers who don’t use the app? It’s harder, but we are starting to add more and
more features to the app to make it more appealing. Originally, the app was designed for the day of travel – check-in, changing seats, information about gate changes. But we realised that a large number of people are now using mobile apps instead of websites, so we added functionality for purchasing and changing tickets, and we’ve added the ability to download boarding passes for our partner airlines – things you normally do long before you get to the airport. It’s easier than the traditional method of checking in at the airport and having to keep track of paper boarding passes. What does the future look like for United and the industry? Our employees are doing things with apps we didn’t think possible even three years ago. They come up with really innovative ways to enhance the customer experience. My team faces the challenge of picking things to work on that they think will make life better for passengers. We don’t want them to be afraid to try things if there’s a chance it’ll have a positive impact.
n See Hotlist, p72
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
