At high-end hotels, business is looking up

May 13, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

While the recession cut deeply into business and leisure travel at all hotels, luxury hotels were hit the hardest. Now, however, that segment is reporting the strongest recovery.

For the week that ended May 1, the luxury hotel niche reported the sharpest increases in both occupancy and revenue per available room of any segment in the domestic hotel industry, according to Smith Travel Research, the hotel financial analysis firm.

“The recovery is stronger in luxury than in any other segment of the hotel business,” Mr. Cooper said. “This time last year we were taking the toughest hit, primarily because of the cancellations of groups after A.I.G. and all the media attention that created.” Everybody, he added, “was being very circumspect about how they spent their money, and where.”

Get the full story at The New York Times.