Excerpt from CoStar
CoStar's Jan Freitag Says Group Trend Evident at Hotel Data Conference
The number of groups booking U.S. hotel rooms continued to increase in June, though individual business travel continued to lag, according to the latest monthly data from STR and CoStar.
The positive group demand momentum was on display at the Hotel Data Conference — hosted in Nashville, Tennessee, by STR and Hotel News Now — Jan Freitag, national director for hospitality analytics for CoStar Group, said.
“It was nice to see that group demand in June continued its positive momentum, and I would guess that we will see new group demand records this fall,” he said in a video presenting his monthly analysis of U.S. hotel data and trends.
“During HDC, I was struck by the number of companies that sent multiple attendees. I think we are living a new trend in real time, which is the decrease in one-to-one trips and the increase in teams choosing an industry conference as a reason to get together after two years of remote connection — and our group numbers bear this out,” he continued.
Freitag also relayed updated forecasts for the U.S. hotel industry from CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm STR, in partnership with Tourism Economics, which raise expectations for rate growth.
For more of his insights into the hotel data and trends, watch the video at CoStar.
Click here to read complete article at CoStar.