SeeCalifornia.com

2 Monterey coastal hotels named  most romantic Tickle Pink Inn (right photo) in Carmel and Post Ranch Inn (left) in Big Sur were selected as two of the  “Most Romantic” hotels in the country by TripAdvisor.com recently. In November 2012, the county was voted the top North American Golf Destination by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators. Last month, the county was named one of the top 10 wine travel destinations in the world by Wine Enthusiast magazine.  Tickle Pink opened 57 years ago on the original homestead of state Sen. Edward Tickle. The Post Ranch Inn  opened in 1992–both feature panoramic ocean views.

New hotel record: 1 billion hotel rooms sold! 2012 was a banner year for the U.S. hotel industry. Collectively hoteliers sold more rooms than ever before — more than 1.1 billion. With all this room demand came pricing power, so the average daily rate (ADR) for a U.S. hotel increased 4.2% over 2011.

San Francisco: No. 1 city with growing hotel rates
San Francisco/San Mateo, Calif. 10.8%
North Dakota 10.4%
San Jose-Santa Cruz, Calif. 9.8%
Charlotte, 9.4%
Oakland, 9.2%

U.S. markets with the weakest % change
Colorado Springs, 0.8%
Tulsa, 0.5%
Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (0.2%)
New Jersey Shore (0.6%)
California North Central (0.8%)

Hotel occupancy rises in Sacramento region: Sacramento-area hotels saw  average occupancy rates last year at 66.7%, up from 65.2% in 2011. The average daily room rate in the Sacramento area in 2012 was $93.21, up from $91.32 in 2011.

Hotel online booking: Hoteliers are aiming to drive repeat bookings to their own direct booking engines after waking up to the fact that it is  difficult to deliver on their customer loyalty strategies. Customers who book online can be loyal to a third party such as hotels.com – not the hotel brand.  Here’s some previous hotel news.