Queen Elizabeth II’s death at her favourite home, Balmoral in Scotland, put in motion a series of formal events as the world mourned.
Visitors, keen to pay tribute to the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch and experience a piece of history, flocked to Edinburgh and London, for Her Majesty's lying in state and funeral.
Edinburgh was the first city to see a rise in demand after the Royal Family announced the Queen’s coffin would be carried from Holyrood Palace to St Giles’ Cathedral, where it would lie in state, on Monday 12 September.
Occupancy on the books for 11 and 12 September had stood at 80% and 76%, respectively, on 5 September according to proprietary data from CoStar's STR hotels benchmarking business. After the announcement, occupancies jumped to 93% and 89%, delivering a knock-on rise to rates as visitors and global media descended on the Scottish capital.
Average booking pickup within a week for the city tends to range from 1% to 7%, so double-digit growth in occupancy from one week to another provides evidence of the surge in demand.
The Queen’s coffin's arrival in London on Tuesday 13 September and its journey from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall the following day was similarly visible in London’s hotel market.
Occupancy peaked on the Tuesday at 89%, a 13% pick-up in room nights from the week before when forward bookings were in the mid-70s.
Her Majesty’s funeral, which had a televised audience of several billion people, according to news sources, was attended by heads of states from across the globe, supporting occupancy and rates on Sunday 18 September and potentially Monday 19 September, when bookings rose 22% and 9%, respectively.
With so many high-profile guests, Luxury and Upper Upscale hotels were in high demand.
Average rates in London during the week of 12 September remained above £200, with prices reaching their highest on the day of the funeral itself, albeit at lower occupancies.
Luxury properties saw prices in excess of £550, likely due to higher suite demand given the many heads of state visiting the capital with their entourages. High-end hotels in and around Park Lane and Victoria profited from their prime locations close to Buckingham Palace and the Wellington Arch, which the procession visited after the funeral on Monday.
Looking ahead to King Charles III’s coronation next year, set to result in a bank holiday weekend and celebrations for many, thousands of tourists will be expected to visit the UK, underlining the Royal Family's importance to the hotel sector.