Transcript

73% up · STR Unpacked

Ben: Morning and welcome to your short term mental bulletin on the 20th of July. So you may have noticed that it was the World Cup last night, but if you're in the UK, specifically Scotland, more specifically Glasgow, the event you need to be worrying about happens on Thursday. So that's the Commonwealth Games. Starts on the 23rd, and the short let numbers I think are absolutely remarkable, having gone through the data. So if you want to look at it, it's price labs data and it shows supply up 15% and around 770 new listings. Yet occupancy is up nine points to 59%, and the nightly rates are up 73%. Hotels, for example, are averaging £334 a night against £138 for the same dates last year. Let's compare that to the World Cup. So you've got US host cities that have pushed rates up 55%, but occupancy actually fell five points. And really that's because fans couldn't book knockout games decided days out. Glasgow's crowd is different. When the city last hosted in 2014, 96% of visitors were UK based. Short travel, fixed schedules, early bookings. Easy. So, from the operator point of view, Scotland actually runs of one of Europe's strictest short-term licensing regimes. Glasgow is considered waiving it for the games and decided against it. Yet, supply grew anyway, and the licensed operators are the ones collecting the premium. So, certainty fills calendars. Price hardest where demand books early. That's your Monday morning briefing, and I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for watching.