Up and Down With the Hotel Business

One bright spot for the struggling commercial real estate market has been the hotel industry. The lodging industry hit a 30-year low in occupancies last year, coming off the recession, but hotels have been selling very strongly this year: In the first half of 2010, sales of hotels were up 136 percent over the previous year.

But there are some hidden losses that have been affecting the hotel business over the past decade or so. As recently as 2000, hotels made an average of $1,274 per room annually on telephone charges. With the rise of the cell phone, that number is now down to $178 per room. Similarly, in 1999 hotels made $170 per room annually on movie rentals; that's now down to $125.83, thanks mostly to people watching DVDs on their laptops.

There's a little reminder for you: Every new technology that comes along and builds a new bit of business for itself is likely to be taking away from an older industry.