However, it says reports of hotels rates being slashed by 40% only apply to the leisure sector, as its figures show corporate rates fell about 7% globally.
Chief executive Jani Kaskinen said the decline for 2009 mirrors the fall in revPAR (revenue per available room) seen during the last deep recession in 1992.
However, he also warned how average room rates back then took five years to recover to pre-recession levels.
Hotelzon’s corporate rate measurement, which comes directly from live inventories, reveals that the average in London fell 5% year-on-year, for the period between January and November 2009. New York was also down 5% while Paris fell 6%.
Some locations saw big rises, such as Heathrow (+62%) and Iowa City (+24%).
Kaskinen said financial officers are having a greater say in how budgets are spent on meetings and events.
‘Events are still taking place. However, measurement and ROI have become inherent to the budget being signed off,’ he said.
‘In certain sectors, where product training is a legal requirement, revenues and volumes have remained largely unchanged and indeed increased.
‘We have had to prove ourselves as a resource – an intrinsic element of business process outsourcing.’
More Hotelzon news from e-tid.com:
Chelsea signs Hotelzon UK (05/08/2009)
Hotelzon in TMC account win (24/07/2009)
Hotelzon plans UK MICE expansion (08/07/2009)
More big names sign up to BTM (08/05/2009)
And see also:
Hoteliers ‘should take heart’ as occupancy stabilises (21/12/2009)
'Great' November for London hotels (07/12/2009)