All on hold at Millennium & Copthorne as revenues plunge

Millennium & Copthorne has called a halt to all new hotel building, frozen recruitment and wages in most countries, and will only spend money on essential work such as fire systems until the world comes out of recession.

Chief executive Richard Hartman expects pressure on the hotel industry to continue for "at least the next few quarters, but only a fool would predict when it will end".

M&C has seen a 41% fall in revenues per available room in its three New York hotels since the start of the year. Worst-hit is the Millennium Hilton, formerly well-populated by investment bakers. They have clearly traded down.

Group revenues per available room are down 21% in the first five weeks of 2009, with London providing the one bright spot with a fall of just 4% because, Hartman says, M&C is benefiting from people trading down from more luxurious hotels.

Pre-tax profits rose 6% to £126 million on revenues up 5% at £703 million. But the dividend for the year is halved to 6.25p.