Hotel Industry

Despite airfares and hotel rates that are among the lowest in over a decade, more recession-battered travelers will forgo the airports, hit the freeways and stay with family and friends to save money during the upcoming holiday season. This Thanksgiving, the number of passengers traveling by air nationwide will be down 4% from last year, according to a report released Monday by the Air Transport Assn., a trade group that represents the nation's leading airlines. The group attributes the drop to declining demand despite air fares that, according to its report, are at the lowest levels since 1998.

While hotels across the country continue to struggle with slumping occupancy rates and sliding revenue, industry data released Tuesday show signs of improvement in several regions, including Southern California. The hotel occupancy rate nationwide dropped 5.4 percentage points to 59.8% in the first week of October, compared with the same period last year, while revenue per available room fell 12% to $59.28, according to Smith Travel Research Global, an industry research firm. The numbers are the latest in a series of reports chronicling one of the worst slumps in decades for the hotel industry.

More California hotels are being pushed into foreclosure as tourists and businesses alike scale back their travel plans and owners are unable to pay their mortgages. Statewide, more than 300 hotels were in foreclosure or default on their loans as of Sept. 30 -- a nearly fivefold increase since the start of the year, according to an industry report released Tuesday. The list of troubled properties includes the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, the downtown Los Angeles Marriott, the Sheraton Universal and the W hotel in San Diego.

Hoping to keep its 119 rooms filled, Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach is offering an unusual promotion for its countercultural clientele: an Ink and Stay package that includes $100 toward a tattoo and a bottle of tequila to numb the pain. Down the coast at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, guests who get the Hard Rock and a Hog deal can roll through the All-American City on a Harley Davidson motorcycle that comes complimentary with a two-night stay. But for hotel perks, it's hard to beat the deal offered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where your stay comes with a free rental of a Mercedes, Porsche or BMW convertible.

Last week was another ghastly one for the hotel industry, researchers said Thursday, with occupancy and revenue again down substantially compared with a year earlier. Some cities were hurt less than others, with Washington hotels only slightly worse off than last year while New York was the hardest hit among major markets, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. Hotels located along highways suffered less than all other types of properties, such as resorts and upscale urban inns.

At the tranquil Four Seasons Resort Aviara north of San Diego, a heated struggle for control of the deluxe hotel's future is playing out in a rare public spat. The increasingly nasty tussle at the Carlsbad resort is indicative of tensions throughout the higher end of the hotel industry, as travelers cut way back on spending. At issue is the very definition of luxury.

On New Year's Eve in downtown Los Angeles, hotel lobbies were crowded with revelers and guests, many of whom were planning to attend the Rose Parade or Rose Bowl football game in Pasadena the next day. But the holiday crowds concealed the uncomfortable fact that the incoming year would probably not be a very good one for the hospitality business.

The California Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to the city's law imposing a higher minimum wage on 13 hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, handing a major victory to a coalition of labor unions and community groups. The decision, made public Wednesday, lets stand an ordinance passed by the City Council in 2006 that requires workers at 13 hotels to earn at least $10.64 per hour, or $9.39 if they receive health benefits. "The hotel industry in Los Angeles is booming, and workers deserve to also share some of that success," said Vivian Rothstein, deputy director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which advocates for issues favored by organized labor.

Retail developer Rick Caruso has put the run-down Miramar Hotel in his upscale shopping bag. Caruso, creator of the popular Grove shopping village in Los Angeles, said he finalized a deal this week to buy the landmark Montecito hotel from Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner.

I was taking notes for this story on a notepad from the Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel in Singapore when the ink in my pen from the Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, Australia, went dry. I grabbed a pencil from the Hotel Buci Latin in Paris to complete the note and then picked up a cup of coffee from a pressed-paper coaster from the Hotel Hana Maui in Hawaii. Little reminders of these memorable trips help make my days in front of a computer a little more bearable.