"We do this in July to help hotels create budgets for next year," Art Canter, executive director of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, tells GlobeSt.com. "But after September 11, we saw we needed to revise those numbers." The numbers, notes Canter are significantly less than last year.

For instance, last year the occupancy rates for suburban Boston--which goes out to Route 495--was 75% with average room rates of $110. The group projects that occupancy rates for 2001 will be 62% with average room rates of $109. "In the first quarter of this year occupancy was up," points out Canter, "but by the second quarter we were already dealing with the economic slowdown." At the July meeting, the group predicted that the area would end the year with occupancy rates at 72%.

The year 2002 doesn't look much better, according to Canter. In 2002, the forecast is that occupancy rates for the area will go up to 64% with average room rates coming down another 2% to $107.30.