While the occupancy rate of area hotels declined in October, the revenue taken into the city through the hotel/motel tax increased.

There’s a simple explanation for that, according to Visit Oxford Director Mary Allyn Hedges.

“We have more rooms in our inventory now,” she said Wednesday during the Oxford Tourism Council meeting.

The Graduate hotel added about 130 rooms to the hotel room inventory when it opened in late September. There are about 730 hotel rooms in Oxford with another 250 or so expected to come online in the next two years after several other hotels are completed.

The numbers

The occupancy rate for October was down about 15 percent from October 2014.

“However, we have set a record for the hotel/motel tax collections,” Hedges said.

Hotels took in $47,708 during October, the highest amount since the tax was implemented several years ago. Last October, the city collected about $44,000 in hotel taxes.

“That’s very exciting to us,” Hedges said.

In October, the food and beverage tax brought in 271,662, up 5 percent from October 2014.

The fiscal year from Visit Oxford runs Oct. 1 though Sept. 30. The year-end numbers also were presented Wednesday for both hotel/motel and food and beverage tax revenue.

The hotel/motel taxes generated in the 2014-2015 fiscal year were $314,138, up 34 percent from the 2013-2014 fiscal year when $234,146 was collected.

The 2 percent food and beverage tax took in a record $2,589,358, up 11 percent from the 2013-14 fiscal year when $2,327,807 was collected.