Hotel pricing tips

Hoteliers in many U.S. markets in 2022 and 2023 found travelers willing to pay higher room rates post-pandemic. Robust pricing allowed many operators to keep pace with inflationary operational costs and debt service payments.Yet strong demand wasn’t enough. Last year, profit margins contracted 1.3 percentage points, and gross operating margins may continue to be pressured in 2024.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, May 23. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Last week, Skift Research published our Global Travel Outlook. The main takeaway was that 2024 will be a year of . 

New York City’s short-term rental regulations could slash up to 70% of Airbnb’s 23,000 active listings in the city after September 5. Experts are divided on how the move might affect hotels, and their forecasts are foggy. Yet the analyses reveal interesting details about this critical lodging market regardless.

A pent-up surge in consumer demand for travel gave many hotel companies pricing power in 2022. But hoteliers charged the highest rates the market could support for more than just one-off circumstantial reasons. A critical ingredient in the formula was that hoteliers developed a newfound pricing discipline during the pandemic recovery — even when business travel was historically weak and international tourism was slow to recover in many markets.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, July 17. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.