Luxury Hotels Face a Harder Recession, Warns Marriott
Top hotel chain Marriott has warned that the recession is favouring cheap hotels over their luxury rivals.
Earlier this week at the Reuters Travel and Leisure summit, Marriott President Arne Sorenson warned that the most expensive hotels and the priciest Caribbean holiday resorts will find it hard to climb out of the recession than others in the travel sector.
He told reporters that “the most over-the-top excesses will probably be a long time - if ever - coming back. They require really that conspicuous consumption to support their entire business model.”
Although holidays to America remain very popular among British travellers, most of them are seeking cheap hotels to accompany their cheap flights to Florida, New York and other favourite destinations.
Earlier at the summit, the bosses of travel giants Expedia and Priceline both admitted that online bookings from customers in Europe and Asia were growing exponentially, and were in fact key to the future growth of their businesses.
Last year in the US, luxury hotels suffered the most from the economic downturn. Figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that there was a 9 per cent drop in room rates among hotels generally, but a 16 per cent fall in the rates of luxury rooms.
This is bad news for hotel owners, but could lead to some excellent bargains for canny holidaymakers seeking cheap hotel rooms on the internet. UK travellers should take some time to visit sites and looking for last minute deals or promotional offers.
For instance, Marriott Hotels are currently running a three nights for the price of two offer, which applies to more than 400 hotels throughout the world.
Hotels News posted by 
on 25 February 2010
cheap hotels, Caribbean, Holidays to the USA, cheap flights, cheap flights to Florida, New York, cheap hotel rooms
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61N3QL20100225
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