I read with much interest yesterday's release of something called the Hotel Negotiability Index by Egencia for 2010. Egencia, the travel management arm of Expedia, says its Index is an indicator of the overall supply landscape and other factors in top cities globally. The data indicates that, at least across North America, it'll continue to be a buyer's market up until at least the last two quarters of next year.
Every fall, Amex surveys the business travel and meetings scene and predicts where spending and pricing will go in the coming year -- usually in time to help travel and meetings managers who are creating and finalize budgets. And this year, there's some great news to be extracted from the firm's Global Business
Travel Forecast.
Travel industry watchdog Smith Travel Research issued its latest predictions for the U.S. hotel industry this year, and the news isn't good -- but not all bad, either. STR projects an even steeper drop in average daily rates and other metrics than previously forecast. Now, the company says rates will fall 9.7 percent in 2009 (almost three times its April prediction), and revenue per available room will be down 17.1 percent year-over-year (almost double its forecast from April).
