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Always Big, March Bigger Still this Year for Orlando Hotels

Occupancy Rates are the Best in Eight Years at 84.3% Along with
ADR Increase of 6.8%, the Best in Five Years

By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando SentinelMcClatchy-Tribune Regional News

April 23, 2013--It has been eight years since Orlando-area hotels saw the kind of guest occupancy that the industry reported last month.

The nation's second-largest hotel market filled 84.3 percent of its rooms in March, compared with 82.5 percent in March 2012, according to the latest survey from Smith Travel Research. And while the average daily room price -- $115.58 -- was the best in only five years, , it was up 6.8 percent from just a year earlier.

The last time occupancy was better: March 2005, when it was 87 percent. The last time room prices were higher: March 2008, when they averaged more than $120 a night.

March is a prime month for both spring-break tourists and conventioneers in Central Florida, though judging from the new statistics, businesses focused on leisure travel fared better this year, said Michael Terry, an instructor in the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

The Lake Buena Vista area, which filled 91.2 percent of its rooms on an average night last month, did particularly well. "That whole area -- it's just going crazy. I guess the tourists are just feeling good about life these days," Terry said. That area borders Walt Disney World, though Disney hotels aren't reflected in Smith Travel's surveys.

International Drive -- which tends to benefit more from the convention business -- had static occupancy, Terry noted. That tourist corridor filled 82.5 percent of its rooms in March, at an average price of $128 a night, compared with Lake Buena Vista's average rate of $134.

This year's March performance benefitted from a slight tailwind: Easter came early this year, on March 31, compared with April 8 in 2012. A later Easter is considered a good thing for the industry generally because it stretches out the spring-break crowds; an early Easter tends to compress more visitors into March.

Through the first quarter of 2013, Orlando's hotels have filled 76.7 percent of their rooms, compared with 74.2 percent for the same three months last year. And the first quarter's average daily rate of $111.18 is up 5 percent from a year ago, Smith Travel reported.

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(c)2013 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)

Visit The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) at www.OrlandoSentinel.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services



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