Smith Travel Research predicted average daily hotel rates this summer will decline 10.4 percent versus a year earlier

, with occupancy falling 8.4 percent and revenue per available room dropping 18.7 percent. The firm revised its earlier forecast to represent the "bleak" outlook for the lodging industry and "steep discounting" in the market. By year-end 2009, STR expects ADR to fall 9.7 percent, occupancy to decline 8.4 percent and RevPar to decrease 17.1 percent.