Improved business travel outlook will lead to higher hotel rates in 2015
Aug 14, 2014
Corporate travel buyers should expect higher hotel rates in 2015, according to a forecast issued this week by Carlson Wagonlit Travel and GBTA. The improved outlook could lead to greater pressure on negotiated rates for travel managers and buyers, and globally, prices are expected to rise by as much as 2.6 percent.
Overall, the 2015 Global Travel Price Outlook projects next year's global business travel spending levels to be 8.6 percent higher than this year's volume. Expanding emerging markets and a release of "pent-up demand" as mature economies recover will spur that growth, according to the report.
The report projects average daily hotel rates globally to increase 2.6 percent, as hotel operators are "in a better negotiating position than they have been in quite some time."
Strengthening demand in the United States should push its average hotel rates up 4.5 percent in 2015, according to the report. San Francisco and Houston stand to see the largest increases. Canadian hotels will see a more modest ADR increase of 1 percent.
In aggregate, the forecast projects Western Europe ADR will increase 1 percent, with rates up significantly in London amid limited supply, and more moderately in Germany, which is experiencing a growth in room supply. Eastern Europe, which saw ADR decline year over year in 2012 and 2013, is beginning to recover as bargain-seeking meeting planners explore options there, and Middle East and Africa rates also will "grow modestly for the fourth year in a row," according to the report.
The forecast projects Asia/Pacific hotel ADR will be up 2.7 percent in 2015, with stronger increases in Indonesia (up 7.8 percent) and Australia (up 3.6 percent). ADR in China, however, will be about flat, as the country experiences an "extraordinary growth in supply."
Among the four global regions, Latin America will have the largest ADR increase of 6.3 percent, according to the forecast. This includes significant increases in inflation-troubled Venezuela (up 17.5 percent) and Argentina (up 11.5 percent) as well as increases for Brazil (up 11 percent), Colombia (up 5 percent) and Chile (up 4 percent). The forecast projects ADR in Mexico will be about flat as supply grows and demand wanes.
Get the full story at Business Travel News and Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Read also "US hotels cresting on a wave" at Hotel News Now