The downtown Chicago hotel market is gaining momentum as rooms continue to fill up with tourists, business travelers and conventioneers.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose to $124.57 at downtown hotels the first seven months of the year, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research, a research and consulting firm based in suburban Nashville, Tenn. RevPAR, a key metric that accounts for both occupancy and room rate, hasn’t risen by that much downtown since before the recession.
“Downtown Chicago has had a bumper year compared to the past year,” said Brian Flanagan, president of Property Valuation Advisors Inc., a Chicago-based real estate consulting firm. “Just by doing my Michigan Avenue walk I can see throngs of people every day on the avenue and that’s always a good sign.”