最奢侈的旅游城市
火奴鲁鲁
For the first time in recent memory, the average price of a hotel room in New York City is less than $200 a night. Prices are also down in Honolulu, Hawaii, a destination for the kind of lengthy vacations that mainlanders are cutting back on these days.
在近来的印象中，纽约宾馆的平均房价第一次低于200美元每晚。同样的事情也发生在长途类旅行的目的地之一——夏威夷，火奴鲁鲁。那里的美国游客近些日来逐渐减少。
Across the U.S., the most expensive cities to travel to are also where prices are dropping the most. Where prices are highest, there's more room to drop. And deals have been the order of the day in 2009 as hotel chains battled a rough economy and falling occupancy rates.
美国范围内，那些旅游花销最大的城市降幅最大。价格越高，下调越大。导致这种变化是因为在2009年连锁饭店经历了恶劣的经济环境以及惨淡的入住率。
Hotels are a lot like houses or airplane seats. Build too many of them during flush times, and you're left with too much capacity. As demand falls off during a recession, prices drop.
饭店和房屋或飞机座位很像。一次性建造了很多，收获了一种成就感。但随着经济衰退带来的需求下降，价格也就只能随之下降了。
华盛顿
The hospitality industry built nearly 400,000 new rooms in the U.S. between 2004 and 2009, according to data from Smith Travel Research, a 9 percent bump over five years. Meanwhile, average occupancy rates dropped to 55 percent last year from 60 percent in 2008.
2004年到2009年，美国酒店业新建了将近400，000个新房间。据史密斯旅游研究资料显示，这期间9%的酒店发展并不顺利。与此同时，2008到2009年，酒店入住率也从60%下滑到了55%。
Falling prices have come mostly from the penthouse or other swanky spots.
价格下调主要来自屋顶阁楼和黄金地段。
"You've got five-star rates getting lowered to compete with the three-and-a-half-star rates," says Scott Booker, a vice president at Hotels.com, an online booking service that provides rooms at 94,000 hotel properties worldwide.
酒店网络预定网站Hotels.com副总裁Scott Booker说：“为了让五星级饭店和三星半的饭店竞争，你就得把价格降下来。”他的网站提供全球94000个酒店的预定服务。
According to Hotels.com's figures, prices paid by travelers for hotel rooms during the latter half of 2009 averaged 12 percent less than they did during the same period a year earlier.
根据Hotels.com提供的数据，对游客来说，2009年酒店住宿费用比上一年减少了12%。
波士顿
"We haven't seen these kinds of prices since 2003," says Booker, who adds that specials for goodies like free extra nights for three-day bookings have been more rampant than ever during the past year.
“2003之后我就没见过这个价格了” Booker说，另外像预定三天获赠一天这种特殊馈赠越来越普遍。
The good news for the industry is that price declines are at least showing signs of leveling off. The same comparison six months earlier (for the first half of 2009 vs. 2008) showed a 16 percent spread, meaning year-over-year price changes are narrowing. Consumers should see the recent trend as a warning that the window they've enjoyed for good hotel deals is beginning to close. As businesses begin easing up their travel restrictions, hotel chains won't be resorting to as many special deals to lure guests.
对酒店业来说的一个利好消息就是价格的降幅至少已经趋于平缓。比较08、09两年上半年能看出16%的变动，这意味着每一年价格的变化都在逐渐变小。消费者应该注意到一个趋势，同时也是警告，那就是能令他们他们超值享受酒店的收益良多的窗户已经逐渐关闭了。随着整个酒店商业的解冻，酒店们将不会再用惊喜价去吸引顾客。
纽约
While prices have fallen across the board, even in the high-priced markets, the traditionally expensive cities have retained their perches relative to others. The average room rate in New York City fell to $199 in late 2009 from $262 a year earlier. But the Big Apple still reigns as the most expensive city in which to get a room for the night. It's followed by other historically expensive destinations whose prices have eased off of late: Honolulu ($160; down 12 percent), Boston ($158; down 18 percent), Washington, D.C. ($144; down 11 percent) and Miami ($140; down 14 percent).
当整个行业价格下调的时候，即使是高端市场，传统高消费城市也始终保持着相对其他城市的优势地位。从2008年到2009年后期，纽约市平均房间价格从262$下降到199$。但“大苹果”仍然统治着夜晚房价的最奢侈城市称号。紧随其后的是那些长久以来高消费的刚刚走出困境的城市：火奴鲁鲁（160$,下降12%）、华盛顿（144$下降11%）、迈阿密（140$下降14%）。
The bulk of the most expensive cities have one thing in common: they're coastal locations amid dense populations. That means they're drawing from big pools of weekend travelers opting for a quick road trip getaway in lieu of getting on a plane.
大部分的高消费城市具有一个共同点：他们所在一个沿海城市，人口众多。这意味着他们从周末旅游的大潮中获益，人们大都选择短途的旅行而不是坐上飞机。
Booker sees prices trending back up in 2010, though not in any mad rush. "We've still got unemployment close to 10 percent," he says. "It will be slow going for most of the year." Still, it'll be a long time before the deals out there are better than they are right now.
Booker注意到了2010年价格回升的趋势，尽管很缓慢。“仍有10%的失业人口”他说，“但形势会缓慢好转” 确实，走出困境仍然需要很长的时间。
