Amanda Hite travel tips

Travelers this summer might not be experiencing any major discounts when they go to book a hotel room in the U.S., but there is a softening in some segments of the market.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, June 7, 2024. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

STR and Tourism Economics lowered their forecast for U.S. hotel demand growth this week. The benchmarking firms now project a more modest 2.1% increase in average daily rates this year — down from the previous estimate of 3.1%.

For 2024, the growth projections for each of the key performance metrics remained flat from the previous forecast due to the above long-term average trends beginning to stabilize.

Hotel bookings will continue to boom despite inflation. A lack of hotel construction is giving pricing power to existing hotels. At the same time, rising demand from corporate group events and international travelers from China and India are tailwinds supporting the sector.

Rising hotel room rates in the U.S. are still contributing to an overall rise in the national cost of living, but the pace of hotel rate hikes is slowing, according to new numbers released on Tuesday.