Local hotels see occupancy rates increase more than 15 percent
Vancouver-area hotels got an early Christmas present this year. The sector saw their occupancy rates rise 8.2 percent year-to-date over 2009 figures, according to a September report from Smith Travel Research. Comparing year over year figures, Clark County hotels saw their occupancy rates increase 15.3 percent.
Kim Bennett, president and CEO of the Vancouver USA Regional Tourism Office, was delighted with the news and offered guarded optimism about its economic bellwether meaning – for county tourism and beyond.
“It is good news,” said Bennett. “It’s one indicator in the economy that we’re growing stronger.”
Looking at the figures, the individual category of hotel bookings includes both business and leisure travel, so getting a clear picture of who exactly is traveling can be difficult. That being said, the upward indicator likely includes more sales-related travel.
“What that [the occupancy increase] tells me is those businesses that had to cut back and scaled back their budgets during the recession are starting to realize that in order to grow their business, they need to get their sales force back on the road,” Bennett said.
Companies getting their sales force out on Clark County roads is not only good for an individual business’s bottom line, it greases the whole economic machine – including the county’s tourism sector, which accounts for about 3,500 jobs, according to the tourism office.
While the occupancy rate uptick is without question good news, the average daily room rate remains flat at $77, a rate that Bennett calls break-even for area hotels.
“It’s going to be a challenge to get consumers who are used to everything [priced at] a bargain rate, to accept that some of those rates are going to go back up,” she said.
Bennett predicts room rates will begin to rise next year, adding that no hotel wants to be at the leading edge of that rise – a position that could put them at an economic disadvantage with deal-savvy travelers.
“It all has to float upward at about the same time,” said Bennett.
