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US luxury hotel market stays hot
US luxury hotel occupancy averaged more than 72% in March, showing that the demand is not as affected by the economy as other hotel categories, according to Jan Freitag, a vice president of Smith Travel Research.
Luxury travel’s March performance was the best of any hotel category. Average daily rates were $323.80 (up 5.6% from March 2007) and revenue per available room rose 1.5% over last March — more than any other hotel segment.
“People who stay in luxury hotels are either insulated from the general economy trend because they’re independently wealthy, or they are traveling on business at a (high) level,” Mr Freitag says.
Customers “want to pay up and buy the best room,” Paul McManus, president and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, told an April media roundtable in Washington, D.C.
His global consortium of about 450 hotels, which had its best year ever in 2007, is booking lots of the “new wealthy,” including Russians, Chinese, millionaires from India and self-made US moguls.
“Time is luxury for a lot of customers, and that’s why they’ll pay more,” said Jim FitzGibbon, president of worldwide operations for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
Report by David Wilkening
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