Strong Lodging Report for End of October is Good News for Vacation Rentals
Nov. 1, 2006. The lodging industry in the US had strong performance during the last week of October. Throughout the year, revenues from hotels were significantly greater than the previous year. However, this has been due primarily to large increases in room rates. In the last several weeks, occupancy rates have trended downward.
The latest report of Smith Travel Research shows that for the week ending October 28 there was an increase in occupancy of 1.7% over the same week a year ago. When the occupancy increase is coupled with an increase of 9.1% in room rates, it produced an increase in revenue per available room of 11%--a huge increase. Thus, yet another economic indicator remains strong.
For luxury vacation rentals, who generally have not increased their rates as much as hotels, these numbers are good news. Our experience with our own vacation rentals, where we held rates steady for the year, plus our knowledge of other vacation rentals, indicates that October has been an especially strong month. It appears that the same will be true for November and December.
