NEW YORK, NY
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg crowed about the health of the Big Apple’s hotels yesterday during a press conference, noting that by the end of the year, the city will have more than 90,000 hotel rooms. An additional 7,000 rooms are scheduled to become available for rent by 2014, the mayor said.
But despite all of the growth, hotels in the city have managed to maintain an overall occupancy rate of about 85 percent this year without lowering their rates, Bloomberg said. “There aren’t a lot of deals being made,” he said. “They don’t have to discount.”
As a result, Bloomberg said, the city would continue to tap hotel customers for additional tax revenue to help bridge budget gaps. Hoteliers had been lobbying the mayor to allow a temporary surtax of 0.875 percent to expire, as scheduled, on Nov. 30. However, the City Council is now expected to approve a two-year extension of the tax, which comes on top of a five percent levy on all hotel bills.
With hotels remaining so popular, Bloomberg said, there was “no evidence that it [the added taxes] has been detrimental” to their business.
