• Los Angeles Times, Monday, January 5, 2009 11 AM

Hotel operators, meanwhile, are watching room reservations fall drastically as business travelers and vacationers cut down on trips, Roger Vincent reports. Analysts say that U.S. hotels will suffer one of the greatest annual declines in occupancy and revenue in history.

The silver lining is that the lean times, which are expected to last into 2010, follow a nearly decade-long boom. Although occupancy dipped sharply in the recession of 2001 and 2002, the years that followed were good ones for hoteliers.

"This is a bad time in part because it is coming off of a great time," says Bruce Baltin, svp of PKF Consulting, which monitors the hotel industry. "The years 2005 and 2006 were all-time highlights for Southern California."

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