The downtown hotel market has high occupancies, rising room rates and maybe even a little swagger.
Nearly two years after bottoming out, the city lodging market notched more solid gains in the first three months of the year, a trend expected to continue as long as the economy doesn’t run off track. Demand from all three customer groups — tourists, business travelers and conventioneers — is strong, though still short of pre-recession levels.
The downtown occupancy rate rose to 58.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 52.8 percent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research, a research and consulting firm based in suburban Nashville, Tenn. Hoteliers are responding by hiking prices: The average daily room rate rose to $140.46, up 7.2 percent from first-quarter 2011.
