�Like the First Quarter of 2001, the six-month year-to-date is either good or bad, depending on your point of view,� Fox continued.  These comments are based on rate and occupancy figures compiled in the June edition of PKF Consulting�s monthly Trends in the Hotel Industry for New York City hotels, released today.
The monthly Trends report shows City occupancies for the first half of the year at 76.1 percent - a healthy level of business for those who are optimistic.  For the more pessimistic, the occupancy rate for the first half of the year was significantly lower than for the first half of 2000, when hotel occupancies in New York City achieved a record-breaking 84.0 percent.

Average daily room rates for the City in the first half of 2001 decreased 2.2 percent from the average for the first half of 2000, according to the PKF Consulting report.  Nevertheless, Fox pointed out, year-to date June 2001 room rates at $216.69, although below record-breaking 2000, are still well above the 1999 level of $205.05 achieved in the first six months that year.

According to Fox, these results are the culmination of a number of factors that influence New York�s market.  First, the City saw less business travel through June 2001 than in the first half of 2000.  In addition, the overall economic slowdown in the US, the increasing value of the dollar, and the general atmosphere of - if not recession, then severe retraction - combined to have New York City hotels accommodate about 4.8 percent fewer room nights than in the first half of 2000.

The slowdown in travel, Fox added, occurred as the City is still absorbing some 3,800 new hotel rooms that have come onto the market since the beginning of 2000.

�We have to note that those extra rooms really do skew the results in the equation,� Fox said.  �While a six-month occupancy level of 76 percent is the lowest percentage since 1995, the total number of occupied rooms for the period is similar to that of 1999, thus reflecting the increased supply.�

The occupancy rate for the month of June alone was 80.2 percent, the lowest for a June since 1995.

Fox held that results for the remainder of 2001 are difficult to predict at this time.  �Our expectation is that comparisons to 2000 will still look bad, at least until the Fourth Quarter.  Our current estimate for the City is for an annual occupancy in the 78-79 percent range for the full calendar year.  However, this will depend on the nature and breadth of the economic recovery that many are predicting, � he said.
Final visitor statistics for 2000 will be released on Monday, July 30 by New York City & Co., the tourism marketing organization for the city.

PKF Consulting is an international consulting and real estate firm specializing in the hospitality industry.  PKF Consulting, along with The Hospitality Research Group and hotel brokerage affiliate Hospitality Asset Advisors Incorporated are all wholly owned subsidiaries of Hospitality Asset Advisors International, a U.S. Corporation.  The firm has offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Singapore.