Trends Show Hotel Rates Rising

Posted on January 25th, 2011 by

In an article recently published by Crain’s Chicago Business, numbers from last year show that Chicago-area hotels are finally beginning to rise again after a continual drop in recent years. Occupancy rates for Chicago hotels rose from 56.3% in 2009 to 61.8% in 2010. The study was conducted by Smith Travel Research based out of Suburban Nashville.

This study gives hopes to local hotels as in 2009 prices were cut as occupancy rates dropped. At its peak, the hotel industry average was $132.19 for a room in 2008, just before the market took a turn for the worse. Last year’s average, $118.37 for a room, shows improvement; 4.5% to be exact. But this is nowhere the high watermark levels seen in recent history.

The price of a room relates back to higher occupancy rates because hotels are now having to sell off fewer and fewer rooms to discount booking sites such as hotwire.com ad priceline.com who are able to sell the rooms at a much cheaper price. Currently, it is estimated that these sites account for roughly 20% of hotel bookings in Chicago. In other terms, 1 in 5 hotel rooms booked last year were rented at a discounted rate. In 2008, this number was much lower, estimated to be roughly 8-12%.

So the higher occupancy rates is good news for hotels. By not having to discount the rooms, it increases the overall revenue per room which rose to $69.66 per room last year, and many analysts believe it will continue to rise. However, it will still be a few years before this number reaches what it was in 2007 when business was through the roof: $87.64 per room.

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Travel Industry Sees Revival in Near Future

Posted on July 13th, 2010 by

With the economic decline the country has been experiencing in recent years, the multi-billion-dollar travel industry has suffered major losses. According to the U.S. Travel Association, during the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, the travel industry lost more than 400,000 jobs and had approximately 41 million Americans cancel their travel plans annually. Also, Commerce Department figures show that 633,000 fewer overseas travelers chose the U.S. as a destination in 2008 than in 2000.

However, experts are saying that things may be looking up for the travel industry thanks to a helping hand from Congress. In March, President Barack Obama signed the Travel Promotion Act, which formed the National Tourism Board. The board’s main objective is to coordinate advertising and drum up interest abroad in traveling to the U.S. as well as streamline visa applications for overseas travelers. This program is expected to attract more than 1.6 million visitors from around the world, which means bringing in more than $4 billion in additional consumer spending. Furthermore, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts the act will create at least 40,000 jobs in the U.S., thus helping cut the federal deficit by $425 million during the next decade.

Formerly a fragmented industry, the many parts of the travel industry now more than ever must work together rather than compete with each other to accommodate travelers. Hotels, airports, car rental companies, and even restaurants and shops should work with each other and complement each other to create smooth and well-rounded travel experiences for visitors. It seems the industry has already begun to enact these collaborations, as projections from the U.S. Travel Association show leisure travel increasing 2% and international inbound travel increasing by almost 3%. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, expresses what many people may have only now begun to realize: “Travel and tourism aren’t just fun things to do. They’re the lifeblood of the economy.”

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