Atlas in the news

San Diego hotel guru Robert Rauch predicted Friday that 2015 will turn out to be the best year for the hotel industry in San Diego and nationwide. “This is going to be the best year that the hotel industry ever had in the United states by a wide margin,” said Rauch, a hospitality professor and hotel developer. “I’m very bullish on 2015 and 2016.” He said occupancy rates nationally are at a record 65 percent — and even higher in San Diego at 75.5 percent — allowing hotel operators to raise rates. San Diego hotel guru Robert Rauch. “When you get occupancy levels up at a certain point, you raise rates. Now is the time to raise rates,” he explained. Rauch spoke to some 100 hotel operators and suppliers at an annual forecast conference in Carmel Valley organized by his firm R.A. Rauch & Associates. Rauch said strong markets in San Diego include downtown, the Interstate 5 and 15 corridors, and Mission Valley. “Conventions are back. Small conferences are back. There much more corporate travel,” he said. Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, also spoke at the conference and cautioned that hotel property values in some markets were dangerously high. “There is…