HotelChatter

Bill Marriott

Good News for Travelers and Hotel Geeks :: Fewer Price Hikes on Hotel Rooms in Forseeable Future

June 9, 2008 at 4:48 PM | 3 Comments

For spontaneous travelers and hotel geeks like ourselves, there is some good news in all of this recession and economic woes talk: hotels won't be raising room rates as much or as frequently in the near future. In fact, there may be some discounts abound!

Many hoteliers and CEOs sounded off at the NYU Tisch Hospitality Center conference last week, which Andrew Gindy dutifully reported on for us.

According to BTN Online, Bill Marriott even said that discounting will probably start happening. Yet it was Barry Sternlicht who seemed to have the bleakest outlook on the hotel market:

Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, said to expect the softening to continue for at least 18 months....

"The U.S. consumer is stretched, and we've been waiting for him to collapse for quite some time. Businesses will do what they've always done in every cycle: tighten their belts," Sternlicht said. "It's going to be worse before it gets better."

Whoa, Barry Downer. He's probably just depressed that he's trying to launch a chain of luxury hotels in these trying times.