The top three hospitality data research firms have changed their tune, with each now predicting positive year-over-year growth for revenue per available room by the end of 2010. Smith Travel Research, PKF-HR and Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels each presented updated forecasts during the ALIS Summer Update in Los Angeles this week. The overall sentiment was that a real recovery is underway, with demand leading the charge. “In the higher end of the market, demand is back to where it was before 2007,” said Mark Lomanno, president of Smith Travel Research. “Not quite in the lower end.”
Lomanno revisited projections he made in January at ALIS and revised STR’s 2010 year-end RevPAR growth a whopping 6.2 percentage points, from a prediction of -3.2% in January to a prediction of 3% in July. “There is clear evidence now that the recovery is accelerating,” said Mark Woodworth, EVP of PKF-HR. “What better time to be in the lodging industry.”
