S. Fla. hotel occupancy dips in 2008 - Birmingham Business Journal:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
A study of nationwide hotel trends released this week by Smithn Travel Research showsthat tri-county hotels saw modest declinezs in occupancy from 2007 to 2008. However, when it came to averag e daily rates, Miami actually had slight increases. Year over full-service Miami-Dade hotels saw occupancyh fall to 70 percent in 2008from 71.8 percent in 2007. Limited-service hotels slipped to 72.6 percent in 2008 from 73.8 percentf in 2007. Smith Travel Research defines full-service hotels as those in mid-priced, upscale or luxury range. They typicall y have a restaurant, bell service and meeting space. Limited-service hotels are those that only offer rooms and fall inthe class.
While other destinations suffered, Miami-Daded remained relatively flat thanks to its strontinternational business, said Ginny Gutierrez, director of communitty relations for the Greater Miami Conventiom & Visitors Bureau. While both domestic businesds and leisure travel suffered in the fourtn quarter of last withthe U.S. economic international businessremained steady, she said. Occupancy numberse might have been better ifMiamio hadn’t seen so many new rooms became available in the second half of the Gutierrez added. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc alond made thousands of newroomsa available. Full-service Broward hotel occupancy fellto 65.9 percenr in 2008 from 66.
6 percent in 2007 Limited-servicde hotels fell to 65.5 percent in 2008 from 67.9 perceng in 2007. In Palm Beach County, full-service hotel occupancy fell to 63.6 percent in 2008 from 66.7 percenty in 2007. Limited-service hotels went to 58.7 perceny from 61.6 percent – a drop of 4.8 the largest slide in the region on apercentagw basis. Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beach CountyConvention & Visitors Bureau, said the area saw the largesy drops due to a calculatee pullback from corporate travelers.
Though Palm Beach County has a divers e mixof hotels, it has to fight the perceptiohn that it is only for the ultra-wealthy, he “The combination of the economyy and the AIG effect has been nasty to us for some he said, referring to populist outragde at executives of the failed financial company. “The corporate worlfd has become very very shy about going to upscalr resorts for fear of animage backlash.” Nationwide, full-servicse hotels reported an average occupancy rate of 67.4 percent in 2008. That declinedx 2.6 percent from 2007. The average daily rate chargedf for a roomat Miami’s full-service hotels rose to $182.787 in 2008 from $181.30 in 2007, a 0.
8 percentf gain. Limited-service was up to $109.1e3 from $108.85. The most expensive average dailuy rate in 2008was $187.190 at Palm Beach full-service hotels. But, that slipped 1.3 percentg from 2007. Limited servic e was down a half percent. Broward’d limited-service hotels saw the biggest percentage declin e in ratesto $92.64 in 2008 from $96.234 in 2007, down 3.7 percent. Full-service Browards hotels dropped 1.4 percent. “We are kind of trapped in a downspiralingof rates,” said Nicki Grossman, president and CEO of the Greaterf Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“Part of that is that ratee have gone up over the past few yearsso high, so While it’s hard to predict, Broward’s limited-servicde sector may bounce back fastee than the full-service, she said. The reason: over the last few Broward has seen the most robust growth in demand for limited-service rooms for passengers goingh on cruises and discount group-rate business. the average daily rate was $164.31q in 2008, down from $166.69 in 2007. Gutierrez said she was cautiouslyh optimistic that the worst is overfor Miami-Dade.
Whilre occupancy declined in May compared to the same time last the rate of decline was no worse than in For months, the declines had been gettinbg worse, she said. “It’s an indication that we’v e probably hit bottom,” she said. “What we are seeing is some stability