Hoteliers Able to Raise Rates With Increased Occupancy

Increased convention business, coupled with the ongoing success of Disneyland’s new Indiana Jones adventure ride and the theme park’s 40th-anniversary promotion, helped Orange County’s hotel industry post a 13.1% boost in room occupancy during November, a new report shows.

Hoteliers in the county also were able to boost room rates an average of 7.7% for the month, the first meaningful increase in almost a year, according to figures compiled by PKF Consulting, an international hotel industry consultant based in Los Angeles.

On the average day, the report shows, 65.2% of the county’s hotel rooms were rented, at an average rate of $85.37 per day.

Hotels in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located and where the convention center hosted a major national American Heart Assn. convention in November, reaped the biggest benefits, said Melissa Mills, a PKF researcher. The average daily room charge in Anaheim rose 7.4% to $92.26 for the month, while occupancy rates jumped 17.2% as hotels in the city filled two-thirds of their rooms, she said.

For the first 11 months of the year, PKF reported, Orange County daily hotel rates rose just 1.9%, to an average of $77.22 a night, while occupancy increased by 7.9%. An average of seven of every 10 rooms was rented each day.

Room rates for the year rose the most--an average of 5.5%--in the hard-hit airport area. Competition and a weak economy that curtailed business travel had kept a lid on prices around John Wayne Airport for most of 1994.