Get a Room. Please!

The sluggish economy is trickling down to Connecticut hotels.

On Wednesday , the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau held a hotel industry summit in Cromwell. Nearly 100 hotel and hospitality professionals gathered to talk what greater Hartford hotels are seeing.

In 2008, hotel occupancy in Hartford was at 57.8 percent.  That's about 3 percent less than the national hotel occupancy rate.  Things are not looking much better for 2009. Industry analysts are expecting fewer people to travel.

You would think that hotels would start slashing rates to complete for the shrinking number of customers.

"We say no, you really shouldn't. you should hold rate. I mean it's a domino effect if it happens.  At that point you're really just competing for a smaller piece of a smaller pie", says Duane Vincent of STR Global.   The hotel industry says after 9/11, hotel rates were cut and when the economy rebounded, travelers did not want to pay the higher rates.

During these tough economic times, so-called budget hotels have been hit hardest. 

Some Connecticut are hotels say 60 percent of their sales come from internet marketing.  That is where they plan to focus to bring in more travelers.

Contact Us