Apparently NYC Need to Kill the Last Revenue Source left...

Typical NYC liberals. Their only solution to economic problems is raising taxes that will drive business away.

Apparently, they LOVE giving out free apartments in "luxury" buildings to poor people!

yeah liberals are the cause of the complete collapse of our enconomy, military, credit system, way of life even though the conservatives were in power and all their policies were implemented........

rufus trying to distract from day of hell in news about Chicago/Illinois politics. what a mess. easier to focus on some ridiculous footnote in NYC news, huh ruffy?

Cracker Boy, remind us what Chicago's sales tax rate is.

I don't think raising the hotel tax is going to drive tourists away. It isn't like you can stay at a decent hotel for $79/night. People come here knowing it is expensive, they expect it.

thing is, they're not coming.... not like they used to. Tourism is down and hotel vacancy rates creeping up...

It was the republicans who have created the deficit and spent money we didn't have. This is not a liberal issue.

NYC - I have several friends in the hotel industry in NYC and they are not seeing any sort of slowdown in tourism. I am not saying it won't happen, just that it has not yet.

They must be in those magical hotels.

Because the stats (which the city gets, because it gets the taxes) show it is so... Crain's reports on this weekly.

magical, I tell you...

http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/hospitality-industry-under-strain-hotels-to-offer-rooms-on-the-cheap

"hotel occupancy levels and average daily room rates are falling "

I really think the reduction in business travel will be a killer. My husband has had two "video meetings" with clients in two weeks. Last year, would not have happened.

Yeah, I think its just tip of the iceberg so far. We have holidays, and flights booked and paid for months back. I hate to think how bad Feb will be...

Hmm, I thought Congress and not the president controlled spending. If they don't like the budget he submits, they can always cut spending. Now who has been in control of Congress for most of the 20th and 21st centuries.

mets - you must be joking. the whole friggin' war was done almost entirely off budget.

"after a number of record years, hotel occupancy levels and average daily room rates are falling and are no longer out-performing the prior year's record results."

Richard Born...is bearish and expects a decline of 40-45% in revenue per room in 2009.

Painful. Very. Unless you are going on vacation and would like to pay less than the exorbinant rates that have been charged the last 6 or so years.

"Typical NYC liberals. Their only solution to economic problems is raising taxes that will drive business away. "

Chicago Cook County Hotel Tax Rate - 15.4%

The biggest expansion of government spending has been under FDR and Lyndon Johnson. The New Deal made the Great Depression worse, and we're still suffering from the excesses of the Great Society of the 1960's, which was responsible for the spike in violent crime in cities and creating an entire generation dependent on welfare.

In contrast, Ronald Reagan's policies led to the explosion in the U.S. economy during the 1980's.

rufie rewrite:

The biggest expansion of government spending, IMHO, has been under FDR and Lyndon Johnson. IMHO, the New Deal made the Great Depression worse [although it helped to end it in 1938, despite warmongerers' official line that WWII ended it], and IMHO we're still suffering from what are IMHO the excesses of the Great Society of the 1960's, which IMHO was responsible for the spike in violent crime in cities [not the devastation to families of the Vietnam draft nor the heroin addiction that those Vets brought back if they made it back] and creating an entire generation that is IMHO dependent on welfare.

In contrast, IMHO, Ronald Reagan's policies led to the brief, shallow and short-lived borrowing-driven trade-imbalanced explosion in the U.S. economy during the 1980's.

"NYC - I have several friends in the hotel industry in NYC and they are not seeing any sort of slowdown in tourism. I am not saying it won't happen, just that it has not ye"

Well, your friends are blind, stupid, or both.

"Fewer travelers -- business, domestic and European -- are visiting the Big Apple. The decreasing strength of the dollar versus the euro, coupled with the global credit crisis and a significant reduction in business travel, is resulting in this fall's overall drop in the number of travelers by at least 15 percent. Hotels are experiencing significant drops in occupancy since the beginning of November.

So for the first time in years, more than 25 hotels in Manhattan have already announced that in January they will be offering rooms at prices below $100 per night."

http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/hospitality-industry-under-strain-hotels-to-offer-rooms-on-the-cheap

I definitely believe that volume is down, and will be even more. However, I agree that the tax rate might cause resentment, but won't influence spending decisions.

I visit Phoenix once a year, and deeply resent that I pay 56% (fifty-six percent) tax on my airport car rental so that Arizona can remain a low-tax Republican stronghold -- but it doesn't affect my consumer behavior at all.

"NYC - I have several friends in the hotel industry in NYC and they are not seeing any sort of slowdown in tourism. I am not saying it won't happen, just that it has not ye"

So, where are these magical hotels again?

City Hotel Revenues Down 22 Percent
http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/hotel-revenues-down-22-percent

Doesn't matter how bad things get, always some putz in denial.

update...

http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/city-s-hotels-sitting-empty

According to Lodging Investment Advisors, more than 10 percent of the 42,400 hotel workers in the city are expected to lose their jobs this year.