DEALS, DEALS, DEALS

December 12, 2008

We'll have plenty more to say about this in our Dec. 27 edition of the Star, but a conversation with a couple travel experts today reveals even more about how this is a good time to travel for those folks lucky enough to have the cash.

Jennifer Gaines of travelocity.ca tells me that hotel rates are down in many parts of the U.S., which more than makes up for the recent weakness of the Canadian dollar versus the greenback.

"Vegas, which is the number one U.S. destination for Canadians, is down 20 per cent in terms of daily (hotel) rates," Gaines said. "Orlando is down 14 per cent, and south Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Key West) is down six per cent."

Gaines said Chicago is down eight per cent and San Diego, surprisingly, has dropped hotel rates about seven per cent. Combine that fact with cheaper air fares to Toronto for both destinations - Porter now flies into Chicago - and you've got some pretty good deals.

Expect to hear more in the future, but Air Transat is picking up lots of the slack left by the demise of Zoom airways. Lyne Chayer, vice president of marketing for Air Transat, Transat Holidays and Nolitours, says they're doing well with flights to Italy and Spain and that a weekly flight to Malaga, Spain from Toronto will start January 13.

AMERICAN DECLINE

The U.S. hotel industry figures for the week ending Dec. 6 bear out what Gaines is saying about hotel rates. Industry figures supplied by Smith Travel Research show that U.S. hotel occupancy rates fell 9.8 per cent, to 50.2 per cent. The average daily rate was $103.46 U.S., down 3.2 per cent from $106.92 the year before.

Smith Travel Research said luxury chain-scale hotels suffered a 13 per cent drop in occupancy, down to 61.1 per cent.

The company said the only silver lining was convention business in Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco.

AND ONE MORE VOICE

In a story posted on the Business Travel News website (btnonline.com), industry analyst Bjorn Hanson is quoted as saying the hotel/lodging "is experiencing the strongest buyer's market in 33 years with no recovery on the horizon."

Hanson, associate professor at New York University's Tisch Center, said hotels are throwing in things like free breakfast and fitness center usage more so than in the past.

Posted by Jim Byers at 01:09:56 PM

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf8f353ef0105365742da970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference DEALS, DEALS, DEALS:

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Travel Blog by Jim Byers

Jim Byers is the Star's Travel Editor. He has been writing travel stories for more than a decade, covered five Olympic Games and spent years covering the Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors and the PGA Tour. He's been everywhere from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, as well as China, Hong Kong, Australia, the Caribbean, Thailand, Mexico, Tahiti, New Zealand, Vietnam, a dozen countries in Europe and just about every major city in the U.S. Okay, he was only in Liechtenstein for a couple hours in a rental car and his only visit to New Orleans was when he was 12, but you get the picture.

December 12, 2008