L.A. County Hotels Enjoy a Brisk July

More tourists, particularly from Europe and recovering economies in Asia, helped push hotel occupancy in Los Angeles County up 5% in July over the same month a year ago. Occupancy averaged nearly 79% of capacity in July, and early indications are that August could be equally as busy, said Michael Collins, executive vice president for the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau. The figures came from a survey of local hotels by PKF Consulting in San Francisco. Business and domestic leisure travel to the region stayed more or less on a par with last year’s levels, Collins said. But foreign travel was up sharply. LAX officials have said the volume of foreign travelers passing through the airport rose 7% in June, and they expect similar increases in July and August.

Areas such as downtown and Hollywood, where average nightly room rates never exceeded $100, saw spikes in occupancy of at least 16%, while Beverly Hills, which averaged $276 a night, saw a drop of 7%. Year-to-date occupancy has kept pace with last year’s level of about 75%, while average room prices have risen 4% to $114.98. In Orange County, major construction projects in Anaheim continued to dampen tourist levels. July occupancy at Orange County hotels was flat compared with a year ago, but average room prices edged up about 4% to $104.25.