Staycations to dominate the UK hospitality sector

watercolour image of Durdle Door representing a staycation holiday
watercolour image of Durdle Door representing a staycation holiday

UK hotels to benefit from staycation surge

A staycation surge is expected in 2021 across the UK due to ongoing international travel restrictions and successful domestic vaccine rollouts. This presents a promising opportunity for UK hoteliers to attract people who would previously have chosen to travel abroad for holidays and weekend breaks.

Domestic travel received 70% of hotel clicks on TripAdvisor in January 2021, where the summer months proved to be the most popular for bookings.  VisitBritain predicts a recovery of £61.7 billion in domestic tourism spend in 2021, up by a staggering 79% compared to 2020.

VisitBritain’s October 2020 survey also suggested a 33% increase in domestic interest in short stay UK breaks, compared to 2020.

Glamping, holiday lets, caravan and camping searches at a high

Many travellers are turning to both weekly and weekend holidays across the UK’s wide range of leisure parks, from touring caravan sites to seaside static caravan parks, and from countryside lodges to mountain “glamping”. A turning point for many was when self-contained and self-catered accommodation was allowed to re-open to family bubbles from 12 April 2021 a full month earlier than traditional hotels.

Looking at Google search trends, the topics ‘glamping’, ‘holiday lets’, ‘caravan’ and ‘camping’ have all seen a record number of searches during the pandemic and are expected to increase even further in 2021, especially during the warmer months.

How easy is it to get the hospitality finance you need?

The last year has been very challenging due to the pandemic resulting in reduced appetite and lower LTV’s, however at Stewart Hindley, we have successfully completed numerous cases where prospective purchasers have either had their loan applications declined via other non-specialist Finance Brokers, or they assumed because they had a good relationship with their bank, they would get their loan application approved, unfortunately more often than not this is not the case.

Why use a specialist hospitality finance broker?

By engaging with a specialist hospitality finance broker, such as Stewart Hindley & Partners, you can be assured that if there is a deal to be done, we at Stewart Hindley will get it done in the shortest time possible on the best rates and terms given the for the prospective purchaser with an assured and timely outcome.

But don’t just take our word for it – visit our website to view some of our many clients’ finance testimonials.

To have an initial discussion with us, please get in touch on 01488 684834.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Stewart Hindley
Specialist financial experts helping you secure commercial loans across the hospitality, leisure and commercial property sectors.

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