Expedia Inc.'s Hotwire.com discount division expects hotel, airline and car-rental prices to resume their decline next month, led by cuts at five-star hotels as business travel 'remains very depressed.''
'There's one last big drop in pricing for the industry that starts this September,' Hotwire President Clem Bason said today in an interview. 'Five-star rates need to drop, it needs to happen,' he said, predicting prices of about $150 a night in most U.S. cities.
Hotwire, which lets travelers book hotels by location and description at a cheaper-than-advertised rate by withholding the property name during selection, said revenue rose 24 percent in the second quarter as vacationers sought online bargains during the worst travel slump 'in decades.'
Many hotels are forecasting average daily rates to fall another 1 percent next year, Bason said. That's because of weak demand and too many empty rooms in new or renovated upscale hotels in areas including San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Florida, Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean, he said.
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Source - Bloomberg
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