Salt Lake County hotel occupancy levels fall 12 percent in April

Salt Lake County hotel occupancy levels fall 12 percent in April
Recession » Fewer rooms filled nightly.

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 05/20/2009 05:53:51 PM MDT

Compared with figures from the same month a year earlier, April's hotel occupancy rates in Salt Lake County took their biggest monthly plunge of this recession era.

Salt Lake area hotels filled only 58.9 percent of their rooms last month, far below the 71.1 percent occupancy rate in April 2008. Last month's percentage was the lowest since 2003 (58.3 percent) and also markedly below other years earlier this decade -- 65.7 percent in 2007, 69.5 percent in 2006, 67.6 percent in 2005 and 60.4 percent in 2004.

April's occupancy levels were even lower statewide, 56.5 percent, but that was down just 8.3 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.

For the year's first four months, Salt Lake County's hotel occupancy rate is at 64.1 percent, compared with 72.3 percent for the same period in 2008. Statewide, is it at 58.1 percent, down from 66.4 percent a year ago.

Average nightly room rates and the revenue available to hoteliers per room also dropped last month. Room rates slipped from $101 to $96 in Salt Lake County, statewide from $110 to $105. In both areas, hoteliers took in slightly more than $61 per night, down from $73 the previous April.

Within Salt Lake County, hotels in West Valley City filled the most rooms (62.5 percent), while those around Salt Lake City International Airport had the lowest occupancy rate (56.6 percent).

That was still higher than occupancy levels in some other parts of Utah -- 38 percent at mountain resorts, 44 percent in Logan, 48 percent in Cedar City and 56 percent in Ogden. Hotels in Davis County and areas of Utah outside of major cities had 63 percent occupancy last month, while St. George was at 61 percent.

Mike Gorrell