Advice from a leading researcher: raise hotel rates
A well-known hospitality researcher is telling hoteliers to resist the temptation to cut rates to gain more customers. Jan Freitag urges doing the opposite: raise rates.
“If you are not raising your rate to at least match inflation, you are, in effect, losing money,” Mr Freitag, vice president of Smith Travel Research, told a group of hoteliers in Central Florida
His comments come at an uncertain time for US hotels. While many hotels are having solid first quarters this year, it’s unclear how they’ll fare in the summer and fall months.
Raising rates may be counterintuitive when occupancy remains stagnant, but Mr Freitag says he’s looking at the market as a researcher, not as a hotel general manager.
“It’s easy for me to stand up there and say, ‘You need to do this.’ I’m not operating a hotel,” he admits.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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