The luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel in London’s Hyde Park has warned the upcoming US election between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump is impacting the number of international guests heading to the capital.
The hotel, which last year shifted its focus to attracting more customers from America and the Middle East, said business was down across both groups, with the Israel-Gaza conflict also impacting occupancy levels as airlines cancel flights in and out of the region.
It said that as a result the performance of the Hyde Park hotel was “behind” where it was the previous year.
In a report filed on Companies House, Mandarin Oriental wrote: “The Gaza-Israel conflict has affected the level of business from our Middle Eastern clientele.
“In addition, the US elections have also caused there to be a shortfall with the American market. This has impacted the hotel as well as the industry overall.”
Despite the hit to international visitor numbers the Hyde Park hotel did manage to improve its year-on-year financial performance.
Pre-tax profit reached £4m in 2023 – up from £2.1m the period before – while revenue increased 18 per cent to £83m.
Mandarin Oriental said this was down to an influx of foreign tourists and business travellers to London which had “significantly boosted” the hotel’s occupancy levels.
It added: “Domestic leisure demand fuelled the early recovery, but this has been supported by robust demand for business travel as well as flexible working trends generating new sources of demand.
“This comes despite continued challenging market conditions, including accelerating costs causing profit margins to decline.
“The ongoing recovery of overseas visitors has been the key driver behind the significantly boosted occupancy levels, with trading further supported by strong growth in corporate meetings and the events business, as well as robust leisure demand.”
Having sold its Paris hotel to Statuto Group for £178m in April, the wider group has also announced it sold its interests in two retail units adjoining the venue.
Their new owner, an entity of the asset management firm Blackstone called Lavendar Propco, bought the sites for around £124m.
The group said the proceeds would be applied towards the its general development strategy.