The Orange County Visitor Association’s quarterly market report on local lodging projects 5% growth in both average daily rates and revenue per available room through the rest of 2016 followed by a similar gain for 2017.
The growth is expected despite a drop of about half a percentage point in occupancy for each of those two years.
The Irvine-based destination marketer’s numbers, from research by CBRE Hotels in Los Angeles, show occupancy rates declining from 78.7% to 78.2% this year, and to 77.6% in 2017.
Average daily rates are forecast to grow from $144 in 2015 to about $162 by the end of next year, while revenue per available room is seen rising from $113 last year to $125 in 2017.
The report notes at least 1,200 rooms will have been added to local inventory by the end of this year at six new hotels.
Total rooms available daily are expected to surpass 56,500 by the end of 2016, and 58,200 by December 2017.
