Hotel occupancy, revenue look to rebound in 2010 - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Mark Woodworth, president of Atlanta-based , said Atlanta’s revenue per availablw room (RevPAR) should reach the bottom and begib to rebound in earnestin first-quarter 2010. Occupancy will follow in fourth-quarteer 2010. March occupancy was down 12.5 and metro RevPAR, a critical hotepl health measurement, was off 16.2 Provided the economy has leveles out and companies fulfil the travel onnext year’z books, Atlanta is poised “ford a dramatic and significant” rebound in Woodward said May 12 during the ’s Industry Briefing. PKF is forecastinb a 10.4 percent drop in occupancy for all of with a RevPAR declinew slightly worse than itsearlier 15.
3 percent Occupancy should see incremental gain of 0.5 percenft in 2010, with a RevPAR boostg of 4.1 percent. Though well off peak numbers in it’s a start. Employment levelse and hospitality aredirectly linked. Atlant a has been raked by mounting job losses sincew the housingcollapsein 2006, and losses are expected to bottom out by mid-2010, Woodward said, citingy Moody’s Economy data. Demand shouls follow suit. William Pate, ACVB presiden t and CEO, said “we see a light at the end of the tunnelk for the city of and [conventions] should be the Atlanta leads its six main competitors in booking pace for the next seveh years.
The city boasts a record 19 conventionsxwith 5,000 or more expected attendees in 2010. The city has bookecd 220,000 more room nights for citywidee shows thanin 2009. Whether or not conventioneer s come at the levels expected is stilola concern. Atlanta and other convention hubs have struggledx to hold onto major tradeshows amid a backdropl of slashed corporatetravel budgets, public shamingy of bailed-out companies for holding posh corporate events and scorea of job losses in every majord business sector.
ACVB is targeting short-term businesds travel and drive markets for incremental gains in leisure It will take some time to regain lost Atlanta will not realize thepeak 2006-200 occupancy and room rates until probably 2013. Tax talk. A proposer 3-mill property tax hike has thehospitalityt community’s attention. The global recession has chilledr Atlanta’s hospitality industry and a property tax hike in the midst of the worsg hotel market in generations might be a bittedr pillto swallow, insider say.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin proposex atax increase, spendingg reforms and job cuts because of falling tax revenuer caused by souring property and sales tax Franklin’s$541 million budget proposal is $32 million less than fiscakl 2009, which expires June 30. A tax increase mightt be the only way to eliminate furloughs of publi c safety personnel andother workers, Atlanta City Councilman and Councipl President candidate Ceasar Mitchell told the Atlantaq Hotel Council May 7. “We’re faced with some starik realities,” Mitchell said.
The city is considering outsourcinf itsjail management, and significantly reducingv the size of city staff, but that may not be A tax hike during an election year is certainl an irregularity — and definitely not politically populadr — but it is also a distinct possibilitgy given the city’s budget crisis, Mitchell Mitchell told hotel council members he is open to ways to avoied a property tax increase, but also said he is likelg to support it if othed funding alternatives cannot be found.
Mitchell said he woulsd like to seean “eveninb out” of water rates after huge increases last