December surge boosts statistics for local hotels

Central Florida hotels recorded strong finishes in 2017, experiencing surges in their occupancy rates and revenue-per-room figures for December.

The occupancy rate for the month was 78.6 percent, up 8.6 percent over December of 2016. The room-revenue level was $101.73, a year-over-year increase of 17.7 percent, according to STR, which tracks hospitality-industry data.

That December revenue number trails only February, March and April in 2017 for the market, defined as establishments in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

For the full year of 2017, the occupancy mark was 79.3 percent, up 4.9 percent over 2016. The revenueper-room rate for the year was $96.40, an increase of 10 percent from the previous year. Those were the best December levels since at least 2010.

There were gains in room revenue every month in 2017 and in every month except January for occupancy in the Central Florida market.

The top gainers in both categories among the top 25 markets were Houston and New Orleans. Nationwide in December, occupancy was up 2.3 percent to 54 percent, while revenue per room gained 4.6 percent to $65.85.

College football bowl games, New Year’s Eve celebrations and extended post-hurricane conditions were contributors in the country’s major markets, said Jan Freitag, STR’s vice president of lodging insights.

“Total U.S. numbers were boosted by the post-hurricane business that remains in Texas and Florida,” he said. “That will be the case so long as FEMA is buying rooms in those recovering markets.”