Venue portfolio etc.venues has reported it took £1m of confirmed bookings in the three days following the prime minister’s announcement that indoor events could return, on 17 May. Boris Johnson announced on 10 May that indoor events for up 1,000 people or 50% venue capacity, not including staff, contractors or exhibitors, would reopen in England. “In just three days provisional bookings worth more than £1m were confirmed from the many enquiries we took since the roadmap was announced. That is a 500% increase on last week and supports the hypothesis that many businesses were waiting for this crucial date to be confirmed before committing themselves.”  Events confirmed range from corporate conferences and AGMs to association meetings and government departmental events. etc.venues London properties have seen the biggest increase in bookings and enquiries compared to its Manchester and Birmingham venues relative to their averages.

“It is apparent that companies are looking to increase employee or member engagement with the events planned. Public sector events are bringing together whole departments that have been apart for over a year. Corporates are looking to bring senior managers and partners together to plan and strategise. Associations are aiming to gather their members to network and share industry updates at face-to-face annual events.”

We have also spoken with many sales managers from independent venues and hotel groups, and all are reporting significant increases in enquiries. It seems that clients are finally confident enough to sign contracts. They reported that their clients, although still cautious and asking for Covid-19 clauses and favourable cancellation policies, are now finally confident enough to sign contracts for events from as early as July.

Profitroom, a business that delivers direct booking expertise through cloud-based SaaS technology, has found that UK hotels have seen a 75% increase in average revenues when compared against pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that there is hope for the industry’s long-term recovery.

According to revenue data accumulated between 1 January 2021 and 19 May 2021, which was then compared against data from the same period in 2019, hotels have seen an increase in average revenue of 75%.

The data was taken from the UK hotels within Profitroom’s 3,500 worldwide hotel database, which is predominantly made up of 4-star and 5-star properties.

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