The room-day carries the cost before the slot sells
A daytime or hourly booking sells part of a room-day. The payroll, the utilities and the administrative cost of that room-day are committed before the first slot goes on sale. Savills puts UK payroll at 30% of revenue, up from 28%, and at 29% in London, up from 27%, in its UK Hotels Report 2026. The report attributes the move to successive National Living Wage increases and employer National Insurance contributions. A day-use rate card has to clear that committed cost line first.
The rate line the slot sits against
UK ADR growth slowed from 8.5% in 2023 to 1% in 2025. It recovered to 2.1% in the first half of 2026, and Savills describes the near-term outlook as low single-digit increases. Savills analysed 32 UK markets for the report. Twenty-three recorded year-on-year RevPAR growth in the first half of 2026, and ten have moved ahead of their 2019 RevPAR levels in real terms. Twenty-two of the 32 sat below 2019 in real terms across full-year 2025.
London real RevPAR in 2025 remained 5% below 2019. Growth of 0.6% in the first half of 2026 came entirely from ADR, with occupancy unchanged. The capital added 11,286 rooms since 2019, a 7% increase in stock, and Savills puts London's RevPAR compound annual growth rate at 2.4% across the 26 years since 2000.
Where the room-day is already tight
Edinburgh real RevPAR sits 31% above 2019, with 109 compression nights on which occupancy exceeded 90% in the 12 months to June 2026, per the report. Nine cities recorded occupancy between 75% and 83% over the same window: Cambridge, Oxford, York, Bath, Durham, Harrogate, Chester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. Savills states that compact and often protected city centres restrict the availability of suitable sites in those markets. Those occupancy bands decide how much of the room-day is left to sell.
The cost line that turns with the valuation
Business rates add a second pressure. Savills analysis puts the increase in rateable values for four-star and above hotels at an average of 96% in the latest revaluation, effective from 1 April 2026. Three-star and below properties rose 37%. Transitional relief softens the initial impact and unwinds fully by 2029. The Government's 20% reduction from 2027/28 for pubs, social clubs and smaller live music venues excluded hotels.
Whitbread expects business rate changes to add approximately 35 million pounds to its FY27 costs, per the report. Its five-year plan carries a 110 million pound business rates impact by FY31, equivalent to around 23% of its FY26 adjusted profit before tax of 483 million pounds. Savills calculated that percentage. Whitbread also said it would withdraw from pipeline sites where rate changes had made returns unattractive. Hotel insolvencies reached an elevated level in 2025 and moderated during the first half of 2026.
What the report leaves open
Savills sells the full download separately, and the figures are the firm's own analysis rather than audited trading data. The report names technology and AI as levers on labour productivity, procurement, revenue management, energy consumption and guest communications, and it states that implementation has to be disciplined.
The instruction
Price a daytime or hourly slot against the room-day cost base. Take the payroll band for the market, add the business rates step from 1 April 2026, and confirm the slot price clears both.