Rise in hotel stays as later season promoted

Guernsey saw a rise in hotel, bed and breakfast and hostel stays in October compared to the same month last year, figures show.

Visit Guernsey said the island had an occupancy rate of 60% in October - an increase of 7% on the same month in 2024 - with 61 accommodation providers reporting a total occupancy of 24,216 bed nights out of a possible 40,052.

The tourism body said it had been focusing its marketing on the reasons to visit the island after the summer period to help "extend the season".

Sam Claxton, marketing manager for Visit Guernsey, said it was "really pleasing" their efforts were paying off as "the data evidences that what we're doing is really working".

Mr Claxton said: "It shows that our destination is an attractive one. It shows that the marketing we're doing is working.

"Extending the season means that they get a steadier income across the year."

Will Haegland, general manager at the Pandora Hotel in St Peter Port, said his hotel had 16% higher occupancy this year compared to 2024.

"That's significant because October, that's when it starts to slow down.

"What we've seen this year is that we have been busier this year than we were last year. Anything at this time of year helps because November, December normally goes down in occupancy."

Andrew Chantrell, general manager of the Old Government House Hotel in St Peter Port also reported an increase in visitors.

"October was a really strong month for us and really healthy increase on last year.

"We saw more business travel, we also saw more leisure guests as well, which was really positive because it is that time of year when those little increases can make all the difference to them seeing us through that winter period.

"Clearly we all want to see increases across the year, but particularly at this time of year when we know that the next few months are going to be our sort of hardest point."

Earlier this summer, the States of Guernsey and The Guernsey Institute provided free French language lessons for hospitality and tourism businesses in a response to increased visitors from France.

The former Guernsey home of French author Victor Hugo, Hauteville House is situated next door to the Pandora Hotel, which Mr Haegland said was "a positive for us".

He said: "The number of French tourists we have, we now start to put our staff on to French lessons because many of our French tourists do not speak English very well.

"Therefore to take care of them in the proper way we want to offer that service that we can meet them in their own language."

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