Demand for hotel rooms is surging, study says

A few years ago, most hotel operators were wringing their hands over plummeting room demand in the face of the worst recession in a generation.

Now the nation’s hotel operators are enjoying record demand for hotel rooms, according to a new study by STR Global, a hotel research firm in Nashville.

“Forget location, the name of the game is demand, demand, demand — and the U.S. hotel industry experienced plenty of it during 2011,” the study said.

The nation’s hotels sold more than 1 billion room nights in 2011, surpassing the previous record set in 2007 by nearly 20 million room nights, according to the study.

The average hotel rate last year was $101.71, still below the pre-recession peak of $107.38 reached in 2008, according to the study.

But the revenue collected per available room jumped to $61 in 2011, up 8.2% compared with the previous year. It was the biggest increase since 2005, when revenue rose 8.6%.

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