City hotel activity rebounds in March

Last edited 1:49 p.m., May 15, 2017

Following dips in the first two months of the year, a strong March pulled up the Springfield lodging industry’s key statistics.

Through March, the Queen City’s hotel occupancy rate improved to 56.7 percent from 54.4 percent during the same three-month period in 2016. The occupancy rate in March was 69.2 percent, up from 62.8 percent in the same month a year earlier, according to data from the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.

For the first three months of 2017, the area’s lodging industry also improved its average daily rate to $79.93 from $78.20 and its revenue per available room to $45.31 from $42.64.

Compared with the same month a year earlier, March’s average daily rate rose to $83.01 from $81.57 and revenue per available room moved up to $57.46 from $51.21, according to the CVB data.

“We always have a good month in March because of home school basketball,” CVB spokeswoman Susan Wade said, referencing the National Christian HomeSchool Basketball Championships. “The increase over last year is just a variety of things, not one particular thing.”