Hotel industry improves with higher occupancy, rates

April proved to be a strong month for South Florida’s hotel operators as more visitors filled rooms while paying higher prices during their stays here, a new industry report released Monday shows.

Last month, hotels in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties saw rebounds across all three key industry performance metrics — occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room, according to STR, a national tracker of hotel industry performance, based in Tennessee. Although Broward County experienced a dip in occupancy, hotels did experience an uptick in room rates.

In Palm Beach County, hotel occupancy climbed to 76.6 percent, while daily rates and revenue per room rose to $191.18 and $146.39 respectively, data from STR revealed. That compared with 75.1 percent, $181.27 and $136.21 respectively in April 2016.

“A later-than-normal Easter that coincided with Passover were major factors for The Palm Beaches’ strong hotel performance in April,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO for Discover The Palm Beaches, the county’s official tourism marketer.

Pesquera said convention sales also brought in notable group business during the month in the Boca Raton and Palm Beach Gardens areas.

Overall, the county is off to a solid start this year with a record 2.3 million tourists arriving in the first quarter, up 7 percent from the same period in 2016, Discover The Palm Beaches, the county’s tourism marketer announced recently.

First-quarter 2017 tourism visitation data for Broward and Miami-Dade counties has not been released by their respective tourism agencies.

In April, Miami-Dade County hotels also had a stellar month with 81 percent occupancy from 80.3 percent in April 2016, while average daily rate and revenue per available room clocked in higher at $207.94 and $168.51 respectively versus $203.29 and $163.30, a year ago.

Broward hotels saw slightly lower occupancy of 80.9 percent in April from 81 percent last year, but the average daily rate rose to $155.54 from $152.23, according to STR. And Broward’s revenue per available room also climbed to $125.79 from 123.28 in April 2016.

“Our ADR was up for the first time in six months, which is very good news for us,” said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau in a report Friday on the county’s tourism sector.

Broward’s upswing in average room rate followed several months of declining prices and occupancy due to marketplace pressures and economic issues in key source markets, Ritter noted.

Throughout 2017 so far, South Florida’s hotel sector has seen volatility in occupancy, rates and RevPar due in part to ripple effects caused by additional new room inventory, a strong U.S. dollar and federal travel policies that have softened travel demand from certain international markets.