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

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A study of nationwide hotepl trends released this week by Smith Travel Researcyh showsthat tri-county hotels saw modes t declines in occupancy from 2007 to 2008. when it came to average dailyh rates, Miami actually had slight increases. Year over year, full-servicee Miami-Dade hotels saw occupancy fall to 70 percen t in 2008from 71.8 percenrt in 2007. Limited-service hotelx slipped to 72.6 percent in 2008 from 73.8 percent in 2007. Smith Travel Research defines full-service hotelsa as those in upscale orluxury range. They typicallyu have a restaurant, bell service and meetinfg space. Limited-service hotels are those that only offer roomx and fall inthe class.
While other destinations Miami-Dade remained relatively flat thanks to its stronginternationap business, said Ginny Gutierrez, director of community relations for the Greatee Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. While both domestic businesz and leisure travel suffered in the fourthy quarter oflast year, with the U.S. economicd crisis, international business remained she said. Occupancy numbersw might have been better ifMiami hadn’t seen so many new roomse became available in the second half of the Gutierrez added. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc aloner made thousands of newrooms available. Full-service Broward hotel occupancg fellto 65.9 percentr in 2008 from 66.
6 percent in 2007 Limited-service hotels fell to 65.5 percentt in 2008 from 67.9 percen in 2007. In Palm Beac h County, full-service hotel occupancy fell to 63.6 percengt in 2008 from 66.7 percent in 2007. Limited-servic hotels went to 58.7 percent from 61.6 percent a drop of 4.8 percent, the largest slidew in the region on apercentage basis. Jorgs Pesquera, president and CEO of the Palm Beachh CountyConvention & Visitors Bureau, said the area saw the largest dropsz due to a calculated pullback from corporate Though Palm Beach Counthy has a diverse mix of hotels, it has to fighy the perception that it is only for the he said.
“The combination of the economy and the AIG effecft has been nasty to us for some he said, referring to populist outragse at executives of the failed financial company. “Thde corporate world has become very very shy about going to upscale resorts for fear of animager backlash.” Nationwide, full-service hotels reportex an average occupancy rate of 67.4 perceny in 2008. That declined 2.6 percentt from 2007. The average daily rate charge d for a roomat Miami’zs full-service hotels rose to $182.78 in 2008 from $181.30 in 2007, a 0.8 percent Limited-service was up to $109.1 3 from $108.85. The most expensive averaged daily rate in 2008was $187.
10 at Palm Beach full-servicw hotels. But, that slippedx 1.3 percent from 2007. Limited service was down a half Broward’s limited-service hotels saw the biggest percentages decline in ratesto $92.64 in 2008 from $96.23 in 2007, down 3.7 percent. Full-servic Broward hotels dropped 1.4 “We are kind of trapped in a downspiralingof rates,” said Nicki Grossman, presidentf and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdald Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Part of that is that ratees have gone up over the past few yearsso high, so While it’s hard to Broward’s limited-service sector may bounce back faster than the she said.
The over the last few years, Broward has seen the most robusg growth in demandfor limited-servicde rooms for passengers going on cruises and discount group-ratwe business. Nationwide, the average daily rate was $164.3 in 2008, down from $166.69 in 2007. Gutierrez said she was cautiouslyh optimistic that the worst is overfor Miami-Dade. Whilr 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 getting worse, she “It’s an indication that we’ve probably hit she said.
“What we are seeing is some stability