Convention business and a generally improving economy provided a boost to San Fernando Valley hotels in January, bringing the area’s occupancy rate to 71.06 percent about three percentage points above last year’s figure. Even more significantly, nightly room rates rose from $92.46 to $104.28 over the same period, a jump of more than 12 percent. “Hotels with convention facilities did really well that month,” said Melissa Mills a consultant with the Los Angeles office of PKF Consulting, which monitors the region’s tourism industry. Hotel occupancy in January dropped nearly 2 percent from the previous month, when Valley hotels were an average of 73.5 percent occupied largely because more people travel during the holiday season compared to the early months of the year, when tourism tends to decline slightly. Of the 15 Los Angeles County areas regularly surveyed by PKF Consulting, only five had more expensive nightly room rates in January than the San Fernando Valley. At $268.80 a night, Beverly Hills was the priciest region; the area around the Los Angeles International Airport was least expensive, at $72.84 per night. A year earlier, six Los Angeles areas had higher hotel prices than the San Fernando Valley. The Valley didn’t compare quite as well when it came to occupancy rates. There were 10 areas in the county that had higher occupancy rates than the Valley in January. At 82.79 percent, Marina del Rey scored the highest during the month. The San Gabriel Valley came in at the bottom of the list, with a hotel occupancy rate of just 62.28 percent. A year earlier, there were eight Los Angeles areas with higher occupancy rates than the San Fernando Valley.
