Orlando hotel occupancy dips, awaits Epic Universe opening

Orlando’s hotel occupancy was down for the bulk of 2024, as it added more hotel rooms and attracted fewer visitors.

But the area’s 130,000 rooms saw a surge in bookings in the final three months of the year, so the annual occupancy rate was down only 1.1% from 2023 and at 71.6 % still considered good.

The factors behind the decreases and the rebound are multifold, hospitality experts say. Among them are the pandemic, “revenge travel,” inflation, strength of the U.S. dollar and basic…