Half of five-star hotels' rooms empty in January

The occupancy degree of Bucharest’s five-star hotels amounted to less than 50% in January, down by up to 10% against the same time last year. Bucharest hotels are expecting declines in their occupancy degree this year, a trend noticeable as early as in the first month of the year. The hotel market tends to fare slightly worse in January than in other months. “January is generally an off-season month, when the occupancy degree is lower than the yearly average. Although activity returns to normal in the second half of the month, we recorded a slight decline in the occupancy degree against the same time last year. This year, we expect this indicator to go down by around 10% against 2008,” said Dina Litzica. PR&marketing manager of JW Marriott, leader of Bucharest’s hotel market, in terms of results posted last year.