Business Travel Update

Here we go with another travel economics update. We’ve been bringing you stories about how places like Las Vegas and other leisure destinations should be getting cheaper in the coming months as the economy slows. Expect leisure travel to become more affordable.

The same does not hold true for higher end business travel. There's new evidence that this segment of the travel business is doing well.

Bjorn Hanson, a consultant at PricewaterhousCooper’s, sees overall hotel growth of .8% in the United States with only a 2.2% increase in new rooms, leading to increased hotel prices. The growth coming largely from business class. Higher end demand is the most stable of all.

Internationally don’t expect any higher end discounts either. Growth in many international destination is growing at a clip of 4% or more.

The basic point is demand is softening, but not across the board. With demand still moderately increasing and hotel room availability growing slowly, prices shouldn’t decrease much at higher end properties.

"No Decline for Business Hotels in 2008" by Nick Passmore from BusinessWeek was reviewed for this report.

Comments

[Scribbles]

That's kind of funny how higher end travel is doing well. I would think will all the budget cuts and increased exposure of executive travel spending, it would drop the price/demand.

[Family Man Skier]

I think everyone is still waiting around for prices to drop even further than many thought it would. Here in Aspen Colorado. I am writing to you from the breakfast table of my Aspen Hotel looking out over four feet of snow that has fallen in the last four days, counting my blessings, as myself and my family of SIX, (who are all still sleaping because I successfully exhausted them skiing in the deep powder yesterday), that we found some deeply discounted hotel rooms, night stays, they gave us some discounts on lift tickets...and that's all pretty unheard of for this glamorous town in the Rockies. We were able to find them, and I think if people continue to be resourceful that there are some great deals to be had. Just keep digging! Thanks!