TripAdvisor's twice- a-year survey found that only 16% of hoteliers believe that they will have to charge lower rates in the fall.
The U.S. ranks as the fourth most confident nation for hoteliers. The nations with the most positive outlook are Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, the USA, and India, in that order.
The countries with the most negative outlook are predominately in Europe, which is going through an economic crisis. They are: New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
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TripAdvisor got more than 25,000 responses from hoteliers around the world, and more than 5,000 in the USA alone.
Of all the U.S. properties reporting results, 30% said they were extremely or very profitable in the last six months, up from 27% when TripAdvisor last conducted the survey in December 2011.
When compared with other nations, the USA did better. In the Caribbean, 24% said they had improved, while 21% in Canada reported being profitable in the last six months.
Across North America, larger properties were more profitable than smaller ones. Large properties have 50 or more rooms.
In the U.S., 34% of larger properties said they were extremely or very profitable, compared with 24% of smaller properties.
Still, in the U.S., hotel owners' economic outlook has diminished with 62% expecting the economy to improve, down from 65% in December 2011.
That varies depending on the size of the property, however. Larger properties were more optimistic about the economic outlook in the next six months than smaller ones—67% vs. 57%.
When it comes to hotel jobs, Mexico and the Caribbean are the best places to go for work. A greater percentage of Mexican (21%) and Caribbean (20%) hoteliers plan to increase the size of their staffs than their counterparts in the U.S. (15%). In the U.S., plans to hire more hotel works have dropped down from 27%, according to TripAdvisor.
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Outside of North America, hotel owners in India (39%) and Brazil (34%) are the most likely to hire more staff, while hoteliers in France (6%) and the United Kingdom (8%) are least likely to add new employees.
Room rates and amenities
The countries where the most hotels are raising rates are: the United States, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and Turkey.
Guests maybe shouldn't expect lower room rates in the U.S., but they could possibly look forward to free Wi-Fi in the future.
According to the TripAdvisor survey, 93% of U.S. hotel respondents offer free in-room Wi-Fi. Of those that don't, 17% said they will offer free Wi-Fi in the next six months.
Although 12% of U.S. hotels don't have special offers, plenty do, and they usually are discounts on rooms, special amenities such as free Wi-Fi, free parking, rewards points, and newspapers.
Of those respondents who use social media to engage travelers, the U.S. ranked 13th in the world, behind Malaysia, Indonesia, and Mexico, the leaders.
In the U.S., 70% of hotels and 69% of B&Bs reported using social media to engage with current or potential guests.
Of all those, 30% monitor mentions of their property once a day.
While U.S. properties lags in social media, they've done well with their eco-friendly practices. U.S. hoteliers (81%) were ahead of their counterparts in Mexico (75%) in terms of eco-friendly practices such as towel and linen reuse. But they trail behind Canada (91%).
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