Previous Story
Hotel occupancy rate dips in Aug.
|
Posted on Sep 07 2005
The average hotel room rate in the CNMI inched higher to nearly a hundred dollars in August, but the figure remains the second lowest average room rate in the last 14 years.
Average room rate last month reached $99.08, while the average occupancy rate slightly dipped to 71.77 percent compared with August 2004’s 74.66 percent. The occupancy rate settled below the pre-1998 rates that peaked in 1995 at 91.87 percent.
“It’s not something to be excited about,” said Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands chair Lynn A. Knight.
Although Knight noted the slight improvement in the average room rate compared with the August 2004 average of $91.95, she said occupancy fell below expectations of 80-plus percent, considering that the month is seen as one of the CNMI’s peak travel seasons for inbound tourists.
HANMI statistics showed that average room rates for August in the last 14 years breached the $100 mark, except in 2004. Room rates peaked in 1997, reaching an all-time high of $172.53.
When compared with the monthly average room rates this year, the August average becomes the highest so far. The average room rate went as low as $78.91 in June.
Although last month’s occupancy slid slightly compared with the August 2004 rate, the performance appeared better compared with August occupancy rates from 1998 to 2003, during which the rate plunged to as low as 55.83 percent in 1998 and as high as 71.61 percent in 2002.
HANMI is a professional organization composed of 15 of Saipan hotels representing a total of over 2,600 rooms. Several HANMI members have begun major investments in renovations and improvements to their properties since last year.
