Robert Mandelbaum, director of Research Information Services with the The Hospitality Research Group of PKF has done an interesting study on the rebound in convention business for hotels. Convention hotels in particular, which typically saw decreases of 40 percent in business over the past three years, can take heart in increases in meeting budgets, though exhibitions still lagging behind meetings in terms of sheer numbers of events: more than 40 percent of those surveyed said their meetings are slated to increase in 2005 over 2004; just about 20 percent said the same for exhibitions.
And as the number of meetings rise, so do the rates. According to a poll on Hospitality Net that asks hoteliers their plans for '05. Only 27 percent said they'd keep the current levels. Forty-four percent plan to raise rates by 5 percent, and 29 percent said they'd be going up more than 10 percent. The poll didn't even offer an option of reducing rates--wonder why?
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