The overall UK and Ireland average hotel rate has increased by almost £5 year on year to reach £61.25, according to BVA
BDRC’s Venue Verdict study for Q1 2024.
London reported a rapid growth in rates to reach £92.32, with the provinces also up at £52.36.
The increase is partly due to venues listening to customers’ appetite for better experiences, which is translating into higher daily rates, according to Louise Tawadrous, client services director at BVA BDRC
She said:
“The recovery of on-site experience we were starting to see last near is now
properly embedded and customers are telling us that, when the experience
before, during and after an event is right, they are happy to pay more.”
The feedback module of VenueVerdict reported an all-time high of 71 per cent, beating 2019 scores, having recorded an all time low
in Q4 2021.
Handling of events enquiries, pre-event communication and
understanding priorities continued to improve over the course of the year.
Of the three sales attributes - Enquiry Handling, Pre-Event Communication and
Understanding Priorities - all were on track to beat past year’s scores.
Tawadrous said: “Of the three, Understanding Priorities has
the biggest influence on customer experience scores, underscoring the
importance of building better customer relationships.”
She added: “The softer customer service skills, including
friendliness and flexibility, showed a good improvement, beating 2019 levels
and scoring very highly. This area should remain one of focus, as it impacts
overall satisfaction.”
VenueVerdict’s Sales Enquiry Performance UK industry average
continued to grow in 2023 and 2024, at an all-time high of 80 per cent at the end of Q1
2024, beating 2019 performance.
There remained work to be done with response times at venues, the research found. In 2019, around 80 per cent of venues were sending the
proposal within eight hours, and around 70 per cent were within four hours. There was a
real dip in response time in 2021, with a low of 54 per cent sending the proposal
within eight hours in Q3 2021 and 44 per cent sending it within four hours.
BVA BDRC saw a steady increase in this metric throughout
2022 and 2023, with Q1 2024 finally beating 2019 levels with 86 per cent of venues
sending a proposal within eight hours, and 80 per cent within four hours.
As in past years, F&B quality and delivery scores
remained the lowest from all attributes.
Tawadrous concluded: “At BVA BDRC we have come to understand
the importance of customer experience and how it can deliver to the bottom
line, both at the time and in terms of creating loyalty for future events.
“It is wonderful to see the progress being made by venues
and building on these improvements should mean that a strong year is certain.”
