Just how much will a five-star hotel cost you in the near future? Are you willing to pay $150?
“There’s one last big drop in pricing for the industry that starts this September,” Hotwire President Clem Bason said in an interview with Bloomberg News. He is predicting prices of about $150 a night in most US cities.
Many hotels are forecasting average daily rates to fall another one percent next year, Bason said.
That’s because of weak demand and too many empty rooms in new or renovated upscale hotels in areas including San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean, he said.
Average US daily hotel rates fell 8.7 percent to USD$98.66 in the first half of the year from a year earlier, while occupancy tumbled 11 percent to 54.6 percent, according to data compiled by Smith Travel Research Inc.
“You won’t see any meaningful recovery through the first half of 2010…you might get a little bit but nothing of any scale,” Bason said. “Next year the key word will be stabilization, but not growth.”
Las Vegas is among destinations advertising posh hotel rooms for as low as $66.
Hoteliers in the major convention cities, including Las Vegas, have turned to tourists to fill rooms that otherwise would have been filled by business travelers who have cut back on trips, said Brian Ek, a spokesman for Priceline.com.
By David Wilkening
