Feb. 22–South Florida's hotel industry posted its second consecutive monthly decline in room occupancy and revenue measurements in January, a new report Tuesday from a national industry data and analytics specialist shows.

In Broward County last month, hotel occupancy slipped to 79.9 percent from 81.4 percent in January 2016, while the average daily rate declined to $168.11 from $171.75, according to STR, a national tracker of hotel industry performance, based in Tennessee.

Some hotels along Fort Lauderdale's popular beachfront strip as well as others near Port Everglades saw softer demand for rooms during the first-half of January, which in some cases resulted in lower occupancy overall that month.

Among them is the 236-room Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel, along Southeast 17th Street.

"We saw a small decline in occupancy compared to last year, however ADR [average daily rate] was up slightly," said Ben Johnson, director of sales and marketing.

Tourism officials say January's performance is still strong given all of the marketplace challenges including competition from alternative lodging sources such as Airbnb.

"While the metrics for January 2017 in South Florida are down, [Broward County] saw the smallest decline," said Stacy Ritter, president/CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, the county's tourism marketer.

Passenger numbers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport are increasing year-over-year and group business is above last year's numbers, Ritter said.

Still "outside factors" such as Airbnb may be having an impact on hotel occupancy during the high-season, she noted.

San Francisco-based in-home-stays booking company Airbnb has made noticeable inroads into South Florida in recent years.

As of 2016, Airbnb had about 3,200 active hosts in Broward, 1,600 in Palm Beach County and 6,800 in Miami-Dade, according to Benjamin Breit, a Florida spokesman for the company

In 2016, the number of Airbnb hosts in Florida grew 74 percent to 32,000, and together they accommodated 1.5 million visitors overall, company data shows.

In January, Palm Beach County hotels were 77.1 percent full versus 79.2 percent in the year-ago month, while the average rate fell to $204.86 from $209.86 last year, according to STR.

Still, Palm Beach County's January occupancy ranked third in Florida behind The Keys and the Greater Fort Lauderdale area, according to Discover The Palm Beaches.

The Palm Beaches, as the county is marketed for tourism, continues to see strong growth in domestic visitors, however visitation from some international markets such as Canada and Brazil is down, the county's official tourism marketing arm said.

"Occupancy levels near 80 percent, which we saw last year, are difficult to maintain at the moment because of new room growth," Discover said in a statement Tuesday.

In Miami-Dade County, hotel occupancy decreased to 77 percent, from 80.8 percent a year ago, STR data showed. The Greater Miami area posted an average daily rate of $215.29, compared with $237.31 last year.

"While rate and occupancy are down in Miami-Dade, our demand [rooms sold], was practically flat at [0.4 percent], indicating we sold practically the same number of hotel rooms albeit at a lower rate," said Rolando Aedo, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Inventory has increased significantly more than other destinations and continues to pose challenges to maintain occupancy and rate but we do anticipate stabilization later in 2017."

The Miami Beach Convention Center, a hub for group and convention business, is also now fully closed for renovations, which translates to lost opportunities in these segments, Aedo noted.

Across the tri-county area, revenue per available room also took a hit in January, falling 3.8 percent, 5 percent and 13.5 percent respectively in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade.

In January 2016, while South Florida's hotel sector did also see lower occupancy from the same month in 2015, average daily rate was higher, STR data showed. While revenue per available room in January 2016 also increased in Broward and Palm Beach counties year over year, but slipped slightly in Miami-Dade.

A year ago, the dip in January occupancy across South Florida was largely attributed to a milder winter in key Northeast and Midwest markets across the U.S. as well as currency woes in Canada, which kept many snowbirds at home.

Last year South Florida's hotel sector also faced pressure from an increase in hotel room inventory, which put a drag on occupancy and room rates as overall supply paced ahead of consumer demand.

Those headwinds are expected to continue to some extent in 2017, industry analysts have said.

Still, both Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties saw record tourist visitation in 2016, with 7.35 million and 15.8 million visitors respectively. Broward was expected to reach or top 16 million visitors last year, which would be a record from 15.4 million in 2015. Final numbers are pending.

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