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The price for a hotel room of the most popular US destinations have increased

Things have changed this fall, and the average price for a hotel room in some of the most popular US destinations have increased. In September travelers could book a room for an average of $212, by October the prices raised to $217 as reported by the online search platform Trivago. The top 25 destinations vary in prices, with the most expensive hotels reaching $400 per night, and the lowest averaging at $113 according to trusted sources. ­­

In addition to that, an increased number of travelers choose to book their hotels using an online agency in 2016. This year, 65% more bookings have been made using an online platform, compared to some years ago when only one fourth of tourists booked with a virtual agency.

What’s surprising is that the online ADR growth recorded this October was of just +0.6% when compared to last October. At that time, the growth was of +0.9% compared to the previous year. The most shocking result was seeing how Boston became the most expensive city to travel to as the hotel room rate was recorded at $414 per night, while New York recorded hotels at just $390 per night, for the same period. This is more out of the ordinary as hotels for both cities recorded a drop in prices for a room, of -7.6% and -5.8% respectively, for the mentioned period. Only Washington DC recorded a growth in room rates as the prices went up to $339 per night. The price rise was a small one of just +2.4%, though it was more than enough to make this city the third most expensive one to spent the night in.

For those who wanted to travel in October on a restrictive budget, the cheapest cities were Salt Lake City, Houston, and San Antonio. Booking a room in these cities was cheaper by -3.7% and -12.6% for the first two, while the third one recorded no change. As such, tourists had to shed $131, $125, and $112 respectively for a night in these cities. Atlanta was the most popular city for those who wanted to spend a median amount on a hotel room. In this big city the average price for a room was of $182.

Another website, e−forecasting.com uses the Smoothed Seasonally Adjusted to track the changes in a 12 months period. This tool recorded in October a steady rise of +0.4% in 2 consecutive months for hotel rates. Looking at the results observed by this tool, we can easily say the highest rise happened in Seattle with a percentage of +1.9% while New York had a drop of -1.4%. Those reading the Smoothed Seasonally Adjusted results noticed that hotels in 18 cities charged more for their rooms while in 8 cities the prices remained the same or dropped. These cities were collected from a top of 25 popular destinations across USA.

These tools and observations help specialists to predict an increase in hotel room charges for the upcoming year. The rise is expected to be of at least +0.4%, to an average of $199. Those who want to know more about this prediction can send an email to the team working for e−forecasting.com.

Looking at the information collected by trivago and e−forecasting.com, it’s easy to see some differences. They show gains of +0.6% and +2.6% respectively, even though hotel books show a loss of -2.0% per room. While these numbers are not important for regular folks, they help hoteliers in taking important decisions when it comes to various matters related to their business. Furthermore, those numbers also indicate that out of the top 25 US destinations, Miami registered a record +48.8% profit while Houston a record loss of -15.2%. Overall, out of the 25 cities taken into consideration, 8 were profiting and the others were losing money.

This is not all, because analysts warn of more bad news for those in the hotel related business. Hotels passed through a losing period maxed in October at 46%, whereas in September the mark was just 38%. For the aforementioned top 25, Houston is the city with 99% chances of being on the losing end, while Seattle has just 1% chances of being in the same spot.

The Monthly Hotel Forecasts for the US is available as a yearly subscription and offers in-depth information on the economic environment specific to each hotel market. The offered predictions can even be given for the upcoming two years, and it can even include data related to the labor market conditions, various rates, inflation, and so on.