By Nadja Brandt

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Marriott International Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. are among U.S. hotel operators that may need four years to restore room rates to 2008 levels after slashing prices to spur demand.

“We don’t see national average room rates getting back to 2008 levels until sometime in 2012 or even 2013,” Mark Woodworth, president of PKF Hospitality Research, said in an interview. “There were rate declines in 2001 and 2002, but until this year that was the only other time that happened in this industry in some 20 plus years.”

The average U.S. daily hotel rate, calculated as room revenue divided by rooms sold, dropped 9.8 percent in May from a year earlier to $97.03 and is down 8.5 percent since Jan. 1, according to Smith Travel Research. U.S. daily room rates peaked at $106.69 in 2008.

Hoteliers also may face the lowest average annual occupancy level this year in 20 years of records, Woodworth said. Occupancies will likely hit 55.5 percent compared with a record high of 64.8 percent in 1995.

Reduced travel prompted by the recession led both Marriott, the biggest U.S. hotel chain, and Host Hotels & Resorts Inc., the largest U.S. real estate investment trust that invests in lodging, to report first-quarter losses this year.

InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, in May said first-quarter net income sank 56 percent as room rates declined in the recession. InterContinental’s April room rates fell to an average $103, an 8 percent drop from the year earlier.

‘Panic’

Starwood’s first-quarter revenue per available room declined 24 percent, driven mostly by lower rates, the company said in April.

“We have described the current situation as near-panic rate cutting,” said David Loeb, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. “We’ve seen give-aways and packages, all apparently designed to stimulate traffic.”

Starwood spokeswoman K.C. Kavanagh and Marriott spokesman Tom Marder didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

At luxury properties, last month’s rates plummeted 19 percent from a year earlier, the biggest decline in any category, according to Smith Travel Research. New York rates fell the most of any top U.S. market, showing a 29 percent drop.

“It’s always easier to lower rates by 10 percent than to increase them by 10 percent,” said Patrick Scholes, senior equity research analyst at FBR Capital Markets & Co. “People get used to lower rates. It will take hotels several years to get back to pre-recession levels.”