Saturday night's all right for Center City hotels

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, January, 2007 by Tom Belden

How times have changed. Center City hotels that used to offer two nights for the price of one to fill rooms on the weekend are posting some of their highest occupancy and room rates on Saturdays. As a result, many discounts are gone, but the visitors keep packing the hotels. Traditionally, demand from business travelers and conventioneers has helped urban hotels achieve higher occupancy on weekdays than weekends.

But that hasn't been the case here for more than two years, according to the regional Hospitality Industry Snapshot prepared for three tourism organizations. The latest monthly report, a close look at how hotels and other visitor services are doing, shows that Saturday-night occupancy was 87 percent in November and averaged 82 percent in the 12-month period of December 2005 through November, the most recent figures available. Most hotels are happy if they fill 65 percent to 70 percent of their rooms, ...