This slowdown has really started to grip the hotel industry. The economic downturn is affecting hotels statewide, according to Art Canter, executive director of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, a trade organization based in Boston. Nobody thought there would be that kind of impact. My concern is that it places hotels behind the eight ball for the rest of the year. Average occupancy rates are computed by dividing the total number of occupied hotel rooms by available rooms.
Demand is based on the total number of occupied room nights.
Both figures can be skewed in the winter months, when rooms often are taken off-line at those hotels undergoing renovation projects. According to figures compiled by Pinnacle Advisory Group, the average occupancy rate in January for the Boston hotel market increased by one point to 59 percent, but demand was down 0.5 percent. Cambridge occupancy was way down, though. The average Cambridge occupancy rate for January dropped by approximately seven points to 54 percent, while demand was down 10.6 percent, according to Arrants. The hotel's competitive set, which includes the Boston Harbor Hotel, Le Meridien, the Ritz-Carlton Boston, Swissotel Boston and the Wyndham Boston, exchanges information about occupancy rates.