Sizzling September delivers bumper occupancies for The Inn Collection Group

The sizzling start to September has been warmly received by pubs with rooms operator The Inn Collection Group, after a weekend of bumper occupancy rates across their network of inns.

99% of rooms were booked across the north of England and North Wales as picture postcard locations basked in temperatures in the mid-twenties ensuring demand remained high in the first week following the school summer holidays.

Owners of 32 properties in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Co Durham, North Yorkshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Lake District, 1007 of 1013 available rooms were occupied across the 26 sites currently open and trading on Saturday evening.

Cumbria’s national park was the peak performer with all nine open sites fully booked, whilst North Yorkshire was close behind with just one room at the 95-key The Harrogate Inn left available.

Included in this region’s successes was the newly reopened The Knaresborough Inn, with 100% occupancy coming just one week since it returned from a multi-million-pound refurbishment.

In total 24 out of 26 properties were at 100% of capacity, continuing what has to date been an impressive year for the Newcastle-based hospitality operator.

Providing traditional inn-style hospitality, with a warm and welcoming pub attached to comfortable accommodation rooms, six venues have already returned from refurbishment with The Ripon Inn, The Tynemouth Castle Inn and The Ullswater Inn all due back by the end of the year.

The start of 2024 will see three more venues return and expand the company’s sphere of operations in North Wales with The Swallow Falls Inn and The Llandudno Inn and Lancashire with Offshore in Lytham St Annes.

With growth showing across the group, rooms director Kate Bentley says that is an endorsement from The Inn Collection Group’s customers and that there will be more to come in the final quarter of the year.

She said: We’re naturally delighted that our inns proved so popular last weekend and that we have been able to carry forward the momentum of what has been overall a positive summer for us.

“Our style of hospitality is proving to be a winning formula in a challenging environment, with the cosy pub and comfortable rooms being something that is really valued by those staying with us.

“We have grown the number of sites available for people to choose from with six re-openings so far this year and it is particularly pleasing to see these renovations amongst the top performers in the group.

“Last weekend saw us 32% up on like for like sales between this year and 2022, whilst the month to date figures are 56% up.

“For The Knaresborough Inn to be at capacity in just its second week of re-opening I think shows that we are getting our offering right in terms of quality and value and that our inns are in the right locations for our target market.

“For the year to date, we are up on room nights, revenue and ADR and that is also on like-for-like analysis, not just because our number of open inns has increased.

“With the night’s drawing in, we have recently re-launched our popular Winter Breaks promotion which with a one-night dinner, bed and breakfast stay available from just £49.50 per person, I expect will again be a big driver for us in the low season.”