Year-to-date, every month's room rate has been higher than the same month in 2004. Occupancies have performed almost as well. Only one month, March, didn't exceed the occupancy rate during the same month in 2004.

In the first 10 months of the year, the average occupancy rate was 66.6%, compared with 64% through October 2004. The average room rate, meanwhile, in the first 10 months of the year, stood at $91.51, 8.7% higher than the $84.11 average room rate through October 2004.

Downtown Denver, with 156,149 available room rates, had by far the highest average room rates in October at $139.52. The only other market to break $100 was Boulder, at $106.18. The average occupancy rate in October, however, was 77%, which also was the highest in the metro area. Boulder's average occupancy rate was 64.1%.

After downtown, the second highest occupancy rates were found among the 64,036 available room rates near Denver International Airport. DIA hotels in many months have the highest occupancy rates, but not in October. The average room rate for those hotels is $86.65 per night.

The 67,549 available hotel room nights near Stapleton, which formerly was an international airport, but now is being redeveloped by Forest City into a master-planned, mixed-use community, was 69.3%, almost identical to DIA. However, the average room rate is much less expensive, at $72.25.

The entire South and Southeast markets, with a total of 279,922 available hotel nights, had an overall occupancy rate of 65%. The overall room rate along that corridor is $85.95. The Level I, or class A, hotels along the Southeast corridor showed an overall occupancy rate of 67.3%, and an average room rate of $95.09. The Level II hotels had an average occupancy rate of 60.2% and an average room rate of $62.15.