Little room to operate

Plummeting consumer demand and a glut of highly leveraged properties has the hotel industry bracing for widespread defaults.

[Magic Mushrooms]

Yeah, yeah... "When this market does turn around, the people who have managed to see it through are going to come out really strong on the other end."
This presumes two things, first, that there's a 'turn around' and, secondly, that there's an 'other end.' Let's face it/facts, with labor being little else than any other commodity in the new global economy, the 'American Dream' has turned into a nightmare. Deflation of real-earnings is here to stay - indefinitely. The costs of travel, whether such be airfares or hotel accomodations has remained in many instances well above reality. Looking at a simple trip to New York mid-week in mid-August from Chicago finds an 'economy fare with restrictions' on American Airlines for a family of four to be $2,000 - and those are $2,000 after-tax dollars. Add in hotel accommodations anywhere in Manhattan, food and assorted ground expenses and a week in New York is akin to well over $5,000 pre-tax dollars {at a minimum/if you don't splurge}.
It's going to take well over a decade for people who've lost perhaps the majority of their pension-funds, college-funds, home-equity and the like to catch-up to just the principal they've lost in America the past couple of years.
With all of the 'top-heavy' mortgages out there and the implosion of home-values continuing, along with current 'yields' on assets being next to nothing, you tell me - honestly, where's the 'turn around', where's 'the other end'? It's all smoke and mirrors, the only entity spending money is the government and, since they take and/or borrow that from us, we'll be paying Uncle Sam back for a LONG time to come. Hotels turn'g round - yeah, right, tell me another bedtime story.

[mark]

My money for hotel stays is now earmarked for higher taxes. Travel is the first victim of bad government.

[Break Out The Tent]

Although airfares - selectively, are coming down, forget the international destinations, since the taxes and fees in place like London's Heathrow can cost as much as the flights themselves. Hotels are getting squeezed. In the past week I've receoved promotions from the Boradmoor in Colorado Springs - offering a 50% discount on all rooms, yet, their cheapest room still runs $240 a night - plus taxes. In New York a good hotel with a king-sized bed in Midtown will run two people over $350 a night {plus taxes}.
Personally, I don't get it; with occupancy levels being way down and forecasted to stay the same, since their overheads {apart from cleaning costs} are pretty fixed, wouldn't these places be better off discounting their rooms to fill 'em - as opposed to having 'em empty?
What is it about hoteliers who think that we're going to pay through the nose? Sorry, but, I'm taking my family camping this summer. A couple of weeks camping will save me about $10,000 {gross/pre-tax equivalent}. So, I'll use the savings to pay my higher real-estate tax bills {the assessed valuation having been increased - again, despite the market conditions/reduced value of the property} and to try to make up some of the inability to generate positive yields in my pension funds.
Hotels - convert 'em into public housing for the homeless/screw 'em.