Atlanta: PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) today announced that, according to the May 2010 edition of Hotel Horizons®, U.S. hotels should enjoy a 1.7 percent growth in RevPAR in 2010, but bottom-line profits (NOI) will contract another 1.4 percent.  The projection of growth in RevPAR for 2010 marks a very positive change in the outlook for the U.S. lodging industry since PKF-HR’s last forecast published in March of 2010.

“We believe the first quarter surge in occupied rooms foretells the start of a strong comeback in the demand for lodging accommodations,” said R. Mark Woodworth president of PKF-HR.  “As early as September of 2008, we anticipated the inflection point for hotel demand to occur in the first quarter of 2010, but quite frankly, the magnitude of the turnaround was a very pleasant surprise.  Such a large increase in lodging demand suggests a return of pent up travel that did not occur in 2009 because of budget constraints, plus the real hotel demand growth attributable to improvements in the long-term economic outlook.”  According to Smith Travel Research (STR), lodging demand in the first quarter of 2010 increased 5.3 percent over the first quarter of 2009.  This is the largest quarterly increase in hotel demand since the second quarter of 1989, and surpassed PKF-HR’s forecast of a 2.6 percent gain.  Click here for full report from PKF and Hotel News Now…