NCR hotels post highest occupany rates in Valentine month

MANILA, Philippines- For the last two years, hotels in Metro Manila made their highest occupancy rates in February, the Valentine's month. Citing the latest statistics from the Department of Tourism, the National Statistical Coordination Board said that in 2007, the average occupancy rate for February reached 79.1 percent, followed by 78.9 percent in November and 75.7 percent in January. The lowest average occupancy that year was in April, which was registered at 69.4 percent. In 2008, February still was the month when hotels in the National Capital Region made a killing from the bookings for an average occupancy rate of 78.6 percent. April came in second at 74.7 percent followed by January's 73.4 percent. December posted lowest average hotel occupancy rate at 61.4 percent. For 2007, the full-year average hotel occupancy rate was recorded at 73.1 percent, lower by 3.3 percentage points than in 2008. "Meanwhile, the month of June posted the highest average length of stay of 2.69 days among guests in Metro Manila hotels in 2007 while the month of October had the highest in 2008 at 2.51 days. Overall, average length of stay was recorded at 2.45 days in 2007 and at 2.42 days in 2008. Cheryl M. Arcibal, GMANews.TV