US hotel market on the way back

The US hotel market is recovering from the effects of 11 September more quickly than expected, with bedroom rates expected to creep up after slashed prices and special deals have attracted more leisure travellers.

However, the increase in leisure business has not been matched by a recovery in business traveller numbers.

Once considered a washout, Saturday night in New York has become the busiest night of the week for the first time since statistics became available 20 years ago, according to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

During the first quarter, average occupancy on Saturday nights stood at 80%, compared with 71.2% on Tuesday nights. This was partly due to the availability of cheaper airline tickets at weekends.

PWC's hotel and leisure division has sharply revised its forecast for the whole US market to now predict that revenue per available room (revpar) will rise by 3% this year. This compares to a prediction made in February that revpar would fall by 1.1%.

Occupancy is set to climb 1.1 percentage points to 61.3% and average room rate will increase by 1%.

A gradual economic recovery is beginning to bring back business travellers but, according to PWC's report, many hoteliers still remain dependent on the leisure market.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 25 April - 1 May 2002