Metro Detroit experiences surge in hotel room occupancy rates

If you want a hotel room in Metro Detroit, you may not wait until the last minute to book. Thanks to a rebound in business travel, hotel occupancy is the highest it's been in the last 12 years, and is on par with Chicago, according to a story in Crain's.

Excerpt:

"When we look at the increase in the occupancy, ... we were one of the top (markets) in the country" with 6 percent growth last year, said Larry Alexander, chairman of the  Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority  and president of the  Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau...

Occupancy rates for hotels and motels in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties reached 63.1 percent in 2013, up from 61.9 percent the year before, according to the Convention & Visitors Bureau. That compares with 47.5 percent in 2009 and 55.3 percent in 2008, before the recession.

More here.