NEW YORK— U.S. hotels will spend a record $5.5 billion this year on flat-panel televisions and other amenities as they upgrade rooms and gyms to lure business travelers, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP study. Hotel owners will increase spending 10 percent compared with last year as they replace beds, serve free breakfasts and install high-speed wireless Internet networks, the study noted. Hotel-management companies including Marriott International Inc., Hilton Hotels Corp. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. have required the owners of their properties to invest in upgrades to help boost revenue. U.S. business travel will increase about 1 to 2 percent in 2007, in line with the growth rate a year earlier, according to the Travel Industry Association. Hotels are estimated to raise their rates an average of 5.9 percent in 2007 even as occupancy will be unchanged from a year earlier, according to PwC.
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