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

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A study of nationwide hotel trends released this week by Smit h Travel Research showsthat tri-county hotels saw modest declines in occupancy from 2007 to 2008. However, when it came to averagse daily rates, Miami actually had slight increases. Year over full-service Miami-Dade hotels saw occupancy fall to 70 percent in 2008from 71.8 percentt in 2007. Limited-service hotels slipped to 72.6 percent in 2008 from 73.8 percenty in 2007. Smith Travel Researchj defines full-service hotels as those in mid-priced, upscale or luxuryu range. They typically have a bell service andmeeting space. Limited-service hotels are those that only offer rooms and fall inthe class.
While other destinations suffered, Miami-Dade remainer relatively flat thanks to its strong international saidGinny Gutierrez, director of community relationss for the Greater Miami Conventiojn & Visitors Bureau. While both domestic business and leisurr travel suffered in the fourth quarter oflast year, with the U.S. economic international businessremained steady, she said. Occupancy numberds might have been better ifMiamio hadn’t seen so many new rooms became available in the seconsd half of the year, Gutierrezs added. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc alone made thousands of newrooms available. Full-servicer Broward hotel occupancy fellto 65.9 percenft in 2008 from 66.
6 percent in 2007 Limited-servics hotels fell to 65.5 percent in 2008 from 67.9 percenr in 2007. In Palm Beach full-service hotel occupancy fell to 63.6 percent in 2008 from 66.7 percent in 2007. Limited-service hotelxs went to 58.7 percenrt from 61.6 percent – a drop of 4.8 the largest slide in the region on apercentag basis. Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beachg CountyConvention & Visitors Bureau, said the area saw the largest drops due to a calculateed pullback from corporate travelers. Thougg Palm Beach County has a diverse mix of it has to fight the perceptiobn that it is only for the he said.
“The combinationm of the economy and the AIG effectt has been nasty to us for some he said, referring to populist outrage at executives of the failesd financial company. “The corporate worldd has becomevery tentative, very shy abouy going to upscale resorts for fear of an imag backlash.” Nationwide, full-service hotels reported an average occupancyg rate of 67.4 percent in 2008. That declined 2.6 percenyt from 2007. The averagwe daily rate charged for a roomat Miami’ws full-service hotels rose to $182.78 in 2008 from $181.30 in 2007, a 0.8 percenyt gain. Limited-service was up to $109.13 from $108.85. The most expensive averag e daily rate in 2008was $187.
10 at Palm Beach full-service hotels. But, that slipped 1.3 percent from 2007. Limitecd service was down a half percent. Broward’w limited-service hotels saw the biggesty percentage decline in ratesto $92.64 in 2008 from $96.24 in down 3.7 percent. Full-servicew Broward hotels dropped 1.4 percent. “W are kind of trapped in a downspiraling of saidNicki Grossman, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdalwe Convention & Visitors “Part of that is that rates have gone up over the past few yeare so high, so fast.
” While it’s hard to Broward’s limited-service sector may bouncd back faster than the full-service, she The reason: over the last few Broward has seen the most robust growthj in demand for limited-servics rooms for passengers going on cruises and discountt group-rate business. Nationwide, the average daily rate was $164.311 in 2008, down from $166.6i in 2007. Gutierrez said she was cautiously optimistic that the worstr is overfor Miami-Dade. While occupancyh declined in May compared to the same time last the rate of decline was no worse than in For months, the declines had been getting worse, she said.
“It’s an indication that we’ve probably hit she said. “What we are seeing is some stability