The recovery of the U.S. lodging industry continues to improve, buoyed by a sustained expansion in the demand for hotel rooms across the country, according to new information from Colliers PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR).
In the recently released December 2010 edition of Hotel Horizons, PKF-HR forecasts that lodging demand will grow 7.8 percent in 2010. This is nearly four times greater than the 2.0 percent increase in hotel supply, resulting in a record 5.7 percent rise in occupancy.
“Ninety days ago in the September 2010 edition of Hotel Horizons, the PKF-HR hotel forecast for change in 2010 lodging demand was 7.3 percent,” R. Mark Woodworth, president of PKF-HR, said in a news release. “Given the actual rise in demand reported by Smith Travel Research (STR) through the first three quarters of the year, along with a modest improvement to the economic forecast from Moody’s Analytics, we have increased our projection of annual demand growth to 7.8 percent.”
The PKF-HR outlook for 2011 has also improved, albeit to a limited degree. The December 2010 Hotel Horizons forecast calls for a 3.3 increase in demand, which will drive a 6.3 percent rise in hotel RevPAR next year. These are 0.1 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, greater than the firm’s prior forecast.
