SCHAUMBURG, Ill.
Group business is driving occupancy growth, according to data from TravelClick's February 2012 North American Hospitality Review.
Group committed occupancy on the books for February through the end of 2012 is up 5.9 percent compared to this time last year and new group business added over the last month is up 5.1 percent. However, average daily rate in the group segment is down marginally from a year ago by -1.1 percent.
"Business travel has been the primary driver of occupancy growth over the past two years,” said Tim Hart, executive vice president, enterprise services at TravelClick. Strong demand across group, transient business, and now transient leisure will offer hotels a lot of opportunity to make choices that maximize revenue production."
Overall, committed occupancy (group and transient combined) is up 5.4 percent year-over-year. Average daily rate is up 2.6 percent, and revenue per available room is tracking ahead by 5.0 percent, based on reservations currently on the books for the remainder of 2012.The February NAHR is based on group sales and individual reservations for hotel stays from February 2012 to January 2013.
