23.08.05
Each month we add up all of our UK airport hotels bookings, and tell you which is the most popular airport hotel at each of the UK's larger airports. Over subsequent days we will provide this information on popular airport hotels for each major UK airport - so keep looking if you want to know the most popular hotels for Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham and all of the other major UK airports in July 2005.
July marks the start of the school summer holiday. Bookings for summer airport hotels are up - so budget hotels and hotels at 'holiday airports', including Gatwick, Birmingham, Stansted, Manchester and Luton are busy.
Booking for airports and airport hotels used by business travellers are down during the summer, so 3 and 4 star hotels are more popular than 5 star ones, and Heathrow tends to struggle. The most popular hotels at the busy airports - the Le Meridien Gatwick, Hilton Gatwick Airport, Express Holiday Inn Stansted Airport, Hilton Stansted Airport and the Radisson SAS Manchester Airport - continue to be as popular as ever throughout the summer though.
We're still working on the numbers, so that we can provide a complete breakdown for each airport, but we can reveal the most popular hotels at every UK airport (based on bookings through this website) for July 2005:
Aberdeen Airport Britannia Hotel Aberdeen airport
Belfast Airport Park Plaza Hotel Belfast airport
Birmingham Airport Novotel Hotel Birmingham airport / Crowne Plaza NEC Hotel Birmingham
Bristol Airport Town and Country Hotel Bristol airport
Cardiff Airport Days Inn Hotel Cardiff airport
East Midlands Airport Express Holiday Inn Hotel East Midlands airport
Edinburgh Airport Quality Hotel Edinburgh airport
Gatwick Airport (on airport) Hilton Hotel Gatwick airport
Gatwick Airport (off airport) Ramada Plaza Hotel Gatwick airport
Glasgow Airport Express Holiday Inn Hotel Glasgow airport
Heathrow Airport Renaissance Hotel Heathrow airport
Leeds Bradford Airport Holiday Inn Hotel Leeds Bradford airport
Liverpool Airport Marriott Hotel Liverpool airport
Luton Airport Chiltern Hotel Luton airport
Manchester Airport Crowne Plaza Hotel Manchester airport
Newcastle Airport Britannia Hotel Newcastle airport
Southampton Airport Holiday Inn Hotel Southampton airport
Stansted Airport Hilton Hotel Stansted Airport
The main changes over the previous months are driven by the continuing shift to leisure bookings. The Crowne Plaza NEC was joint top at Birmingham Airport with the Novotel. The Novotel is 'on airport' - it's opposite the terminal - which means that it is always popular, and because it's not over priced, it does well during the summer months as well as the quiet months.
The Crowne Plaza NEC is just down the road from the airport, near the NEC, funnily enough. It is a 10 - 15 minute transfer from the airport and, in July, its rooms were priced to sell, so it took joint top spot. It won't stay there, as the movement was based solely on its price, which it won't sustain.
At Gatwick airport the Felbridge Hotel took top spot off airport hotel from the Ramada Plaza Hotel Gatwick airport. The Ramada Plaza has been doing well because it has a great range of rooms - from single to family 5 - but it looks to be filling up, as room rates were high in July, when they were available.
The Felbridge Hotel did well in July in its own name, and also took most of APH and FHR's lucky dip bookings, which were plentiful in July (but have dried up in August).
At Glasgow airport the budget Express Holiday Inn took top spot from the Holiday Inn Hotel Glasgow airport. It was the first case of the budget hotel taking top spot from its 'full service' sister that we've seen.
At Heathrow the business class Park Inn Hotel Heathrow airport did well in May and June by lowering its room rates. It did okay in July, but not as well as the Renaissance, which piped it for top spot.
The Chiltern Hotel Luton airport took top spot from the on airport Express Holiday Inn Hotel Luton airport in July. The Express is a lot of money for a budget hotel, and justifies it with the convenience of its location. The Chiltern is much cheaper, although but further from the airport. In July price beat convenience.
In July the Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport beat the 5 star Radisson SAS Hotel Manchester airport into second place. This might have something to do with the number of delayed flights at the airport. Airlines tend to use the on airport Radisson SAS when they have major delays - both for day rooms and for overnight stays. As there were a number of these in July, including a couple of 2 day delays, the Radisson may not have had rooms to sell at attractive rates.
At Stansted Airport the Hilton and Express Holiday Inn Hotel Stansted Airport have been neck-and-neck for the last couple of months. But in July the Stansted Hilton took the top spot by a good margin. We think this was based on people booking where they know, rather than any other reason.
To book gatwick airport hotels or gatwick airport parking at the lowest price click on these links to gatwick airport parking and gatwick airport hotels price comparison pages.
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