Take a dip
Zika has little impact so far
South Florida’s hotels were a little less crowded in August, but rates are up.
South Florida’s hotels were a little less crowded in August, with occupancy dipping slightly from a year ago, mainly because more hotel rooms have opened, tourism officials said.
While hotel occupancy saw some pressure in August across the tricounty area, room rates inched up across most of South Florida, according to a new report released Wednesday by data and analytics specialist STR.
In Broward County, hotel occupancy slipped to 73 percent inAugust, from73.9 percent in August 2015, while the average daily rate (ADR) for hotel rooms climbed to $106.05 from $103.27, STR data showed.
In spite of the dip in Broward’s hotel occupancy rate, tourism officials consider that room rates delivered strong results.
“We are very excited to report that this was the highestAugustADRin [our] history,” said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.“a large citywide group, TeamNational, hosting its event in Greater Fort Lauderdale in August 2015 and then again in July 2016, there was a 5,000-room night swing that we believe played a big part in the occupancy for August 2016.”
For August, Palm Beach County hotels were 63 percent full this year, vs. 63.8 percent last year, while ADRticked up minimally to $116.05 from $115.36, data showed.
“We’re pleased that we were able to remain fairly stable in occupancy, at 63 percent,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches, the county’s official tourism marketing organization. “Given the challenges with news on [the mosquito-borne virus] Zika in South Florida and the fact that more hotel rooms are available than ever before, this statistic is even more impressive.”
Overall, so far, the threat of the Zika virus doesn’t appear to have caused major fallout on hotel bookings in South Florida this summer through August, since local transmission zones were designated in two sections of Miami-Dade, tourism officials have said.
Zika, however, could have a bigger impact on September results particularly in Miami Beach, where the local transmission zone was recently expanded and some hotels have now started to see a noticeable softening in roomdemand.
In July, STR data showed South Florida posted slight gains in both hotel occupancy and ADR from a year earlier. Palm Beach County hotels were 63 percent full this year. The HiltonWest Palm Beach hotel recently opened.