Bourne Leisure has revealed plans to build a third hotel at Butlins in Bognor Regis.
With an occupancy rate of 85% for the year so far, and 98% over the summer, the group believes it can continue to expand without exceeding demand.
The Ocean Hotel opened last summer, following on from the original Shoreline Hotel and the third is currently in the planning stages.
The brand had a 12% year-on-year sales increase according to head of retail Allan Lambert and advanced bookings for 2011 are 7% up.
He also revealed another of the group’s brands, Warner Leisure Hotels, has a 91% occupancy rate so far this year across its 13 hotels.
The key, in his view, is continuously reinvesting a third of profits into the brands.
He explained: “Reinvesting our profits back in to our experiences and continuously improving and upgrading our accommodation and facilities has allowed us to continue to capitalise on the increase in consumers’ confidence when holidaying closer to home.
“The average tariff across our portfolio has seen a combined increase of 6% over the same period last year, highlighting the fact that consumers are willing to pay more for high quality products.”
Butlins’ capital investment between 2003 and the end of 2010 will be about £116 million of which £66 million has been spent on accommodation – including £10.5 million on the Shoreline Hotel, £20 million on the Ocean Hotel, and £4.5 million on our BlueSkies Vacation Club with the balance invested across accommodation in general at the three resorts.
The remaining £50 million has been invested in restaurants, facilities and activities following guest feedback.
- More from the Travel Convention at travelweekly.co.uk/tc2010