A Visit St. Pete Clearwater staff member identified in the meeting as Eddie presented destination metrics to the Tourist Development Council on Oct. 15, reporting that August hotel revenue was roughly flat compared with the previous year while vacation-rental supply remained below prior-year levels.

Eddie said countywide tourist development tax data show the destination was down about 2% in August compared with the same month last year, and that fiscal-year-to-date collections are about 5.23% below last year. He noted the county surpassed $6,000,000 in TDT collections for the month for a third time this year.

Using CoStar hotel data and a Key Data sample of about 2,800 direct vacation-rental units, Eddie told the council that vacation-rental revenue for the sample is closing in on last year’s levels, and that daily rates have increased year over year since April. He cautioned that vacation-rental supply — Key Data’s “nights available” metric — is recovering slowly and has not yet returned to the previous year’s levels.

Eddie also presented a regional comparison of group-hotel performance across the Tampa, St. Pete–Clearwater and Sarasota areas, and noted that group-block accounting during the storm period (for example rooms reserved for FEMA or emergency personnel) complicates some year-over-year group-demand comparisons. Council members asked whether hotels had reported rooms blocked as “group” or “transient” for FEMA placements; Eddie said that distinction would likely require individual follow-up with hotels.

On forward-looking figures, Eddie said that comparisons with the prior fiscal year will appear weaker because last year’s storm-related displacement raised demand and revenue in the months that followed, which distorts direct year-over-year comparisons.