Love-hate relationship: occupancy, rate
Like most relationships, the connection between occupancy and rate involves a lot of give and take. When times are good, both benefit; when times are bad, one or both are forced to make sacrifices. In spite of numerous soapbox lectures declaring “Hold rate! Hold rate!” the majority of the hotels in the United States lowered room prices in the hopes of mitigating occupancy loss throughout 2009. The basic premise of the argument to maintain rate is that hotels cannot create demand under weak economic conditions simply by cutting price.
