S. Fla. hotel occupancy dips in 2008 - San Francisco Business Times:

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A study of nationwide hotel trends released this week by Smith Travel Research showsthat tri-county hotels saw modesy declines in occupancy from 2007 to 2008. However, when it came to averagd daily rates, Miami actually had slight increases. Year over year, full-servicde Miami-Dade hotels saw occupancy fall to 70 percent in 2008from 71.8 percent in 2007. Limited-service hotels slipped to 72.6 percenyt in 2008 from 73.8 percent in 2007. Smith Travel Research definezs full-service hotels as those in mid-priced, upscale or luxury They typically havea restaurant, bell servicse and meeting space. Limited-service hoteld are those that only offerr rooms and fall inthe class.
While other destinations suffered, Miami-Dader remained relatively flat thanks to its strong international saidGinny Gutierrez, director of community relationd for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. Whilew both domestic business and leisure travel sufferedf in the fourth quarter oflast year, with the U.S. economic international businessremained steady, she said. Occupancy number s might have been better ifMiamii hadn’t seen so many new rooms became availables in the second half of the Gutierrez added. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc alon e made thousands of newrooms available. Full-service Broward hotek occupancy fellto 65.9 percenft in 2008 from 66.
6 percen t in 2007 Limited-service hotels fell to 65.5 percent in 2008 from 67.9 percenr in 2007. In Palm Beach County, full-service hotekl occupancy fell to 63.6 percent in 2008 from 66.7 percenr in 2007. Limited-service hotels went to 58.7 percenf from 61.6 percent a drop of 4.8 the largest slide in the region on apercentagwe basis. Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beach CounttConvention & Visitors Bureau, said the area saw the largest drops due to a calculated pullback from corporat travelers. Though Palm Beach County has a diverse mix of it has to fight the perception that it is only for the he said.
“The combinationm of the economy and the AIG effec has been nasty to us for some he said, referring to populist outrage at executivesa of the failed financiapl company. “The corporate world has becomevery tentative, very shy aboutg going to upscale resorts for fear of an imags backlash.” Nationwide, full-service hotels reported an averagee occupancy rate of 67.4 percent in 2008. That declined 2.6 percenf from 2007. The average daily rate charged for a roomat Miami’e full-service hotels rose to $182.7u8 in 2008 from $181.39 in 2007, a 0.8 percent Limited-service was up to $109.13 from The most expensive averager daily rate in 2008 was $187.
10 at Palm Beachn full-service hotels. But, that slipped 1.3 perceng from 2007. Limited service was down a half percent. Broward’e limited-service hotels saw the biggest percentagwe decline in ratesto $92.64 in 2008 from $96.24 in 2007, down 3.7 percent. Full-servic Broward hotels dropped 1.4 percent. “Wwe are kind of trapped in a downspiralinhof rates,” said Nicki Grossman, president and CEO of the Greaterf Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Partg of that is that rates have gone up over the past few yearxsso high, so fast.
” While it’e hard to predict, Broward’s limited-service sectotr may bounce back faster than the full-service, she The reason: over the last few years, Broward has seen the most robusgt growth in demand for limited-servicw rooms for passengers going on cruisews and discount group-rate business. Nationwide, the averag e daily rate was $164.31 in 2008, down from $166.69o in 2007. Gutierrez said she was cautiously optimisticc that the worst is overfor Miami-Dade. While occupancyg declined in May compared to the same timelast year, the rate of declin e was no worse than in April.
For months, the declinex had been getting worse, she “It’s an indication that we’ve probablyu hit bottom,” she said. “What we are seeing is some stability now.”