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

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A study of nationwide hotel trends releasedf this week by Smith Travel Research showzthat tri-county hotels saw modest declines in occupancy from 2007 to 2008. when it came to average daily Miami actually hadslight increases. Year over year, full-servicw Miami-Dade hotels saw occupancy fall to 70 percentf in 2008from 71.8 percent in 2007. Limited-service hotelzs slipped to 72.6 percent in 2008 from 73.8 percent in 2007. Smith Travel Research defines full-servicw hotels as those in upscale orluxury range. They typically have a restaurant, bell service and meetingf space. Limited-service hotels are those that only offet rooms and fall inthe “budget” class.
Whiler other destinations suffered, Miami-Dadw remained relatively flat thanks to its stronginternationaol business, said Ginny Gutierrez, director of communityg relations for the Greater Miamiu Convention & Visitors Bureau. Whilr both domestic business and leisure travel sufferes in the fourth quarter of last withthe U.S. economic crisis, international business remained she said. Occupancy numbersa might have been better ifMiamu hadn’t seen so many new rooms becamde available in the second half of the Gutierrez added. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc alone made thousands of newrooms available. Full-service Browarxd hotel occupancy fellto 65.9 percent in 2008 from 66.
6 percent in 2007 Limited-service hotels fell to 65.5 percent in 2008 from 67.9 percen t in 2007. In Palm Beach full-service hotel occupancy fell to 63.6 percent in 2008 from 66.7 percenrt in 2007. Limited-service hotels went to 58.7 percent from 61.6 percent – a drop of 4.8 the largest slide in the region on apercentage basis. Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beacj CountyConvention & Visitors Bureau, said the area saw the larges t drops due to a calculate d pullback from corporate travelers.
Thoughy Palm Beach County has a diversed mixof hotels, it has to fight the perceptiohn that it is only for the ultra-wealthy, he “The combination of the economy and the AIG effectf has been nasty to us for some time,” he referring to populist outrage at executivesw of the failed financiak company. “The corporate world has become very very shy about going to upscale resorts for fear of animagde backlash.” Nationwide, full-service hotels reported an averager occupancy rate of 67.4 percent in 2008. That declined 2.6 percenft from 2007. The average daily rate charged for a roomat Miami’ws full-service hotels rose to $182.78 in 2008 from $181.3 in 2007, a 0.
8 percent gain. Limited-service was up to $109.13e from $108.85. The most expensive average dailuy rate in 2008was $187.10 at Palm Beach full-service hotels. But, that slippesd 1.3 percent from 2007. Limitedx service was down a half percent. Broward’xs limited-service hotels saw the biggest percentagr decline in ratesto $92.64 in 2008 from $96.25 in 2007, down 3.7 Full-service Broward hotels dropped 1.4 percent. “We are kind of trappefd in a downspiralingof rates,” said Nick i Grossman, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdalre Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Part of that is that rates have gone up over the past few yearsxso high, so fast.
” While it’s hard to Broward’s limited-service sector may bounce back faster than the full-service, she The reason: over the last few Broward has seen the most robus t growth in demand for limited-service rooms for passengers goin on cruises and discount group-rate business. the average daily rate was $164.3q in 2008, down from $166.69 in 2007. Gutierrea said she was cautiouslh optimistic that the worst is over for While 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 gettinf worse, she said. “It’s an indication that we’ve probably hit bottom,” she said.
“Wha t we are seeing is some stability now.”