HOUSTON – The Super Bowl will be filling a lot of hotel rooms in Houston, but there will still be a few – but not many – vacant rooms in the outer suburbs at kickoff time, says Randy McCaslin, managing director of CBRE Hotels.
The Greater Houston area has over 75,000 hotel rooms most of them will be occupied as the New England Patriots play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday evening, Feb. 5, at NRG Stadium in Houston.
McCaslin said hotels in downtown, the Galleria and Inner Loop hotels near the football stadium will be sold out during the Super Bowl and rental rates will be strong, with many rooms over $300 a night. Travelers needing a room this weekend may have some luck finding available rooms in the outer suburbs, but occupancy will be very high.
Most Hilton hotels showed no vacancy on Super Bowl weekend and although there were a few rooms available in Hilton’s limited service Hampton Inns in far outlying suburbs. Some suburban Hampton Inns were asking more than $300 a night.
The new 173-room Aloft hotel in downtown Houston was 100 percent occupied and all downtown hotels were sold out and have been for months.
The 266-room Hotel Sorella CityCentre in West Houston sold out for Super Bowl weekend over six months ago. Nightly rates for the weekend were anywhere from $600 to $2,500 for our 22 penthouse suites,” Hotel Sorella’s Nancy Alonzo told Hotel Management magazine.. “When our rates are four times what they are normally, we’re doing very well.”
“Hoteliers will be smiling this week for the first time in about two years,” said McCaslin, speaking at the CBRE Press Luncheon Tuesday.
Houston hotels have suffered in recent years as falling oil prices and tepid job growth took the steam out of the local economy.
CBRE reports local hotel occupancy hit 69 percent in 2013, then peaked at 72 percent in 2014. The high occupancy rates encouraged significant hotel development in Houston. The new rooms were met with weakened demand and the energy slowdown.
Hotel occupancy fell to 62.9 percent in 2016, CBRE Hotels reports. Occupancy is projected to drop to 61 percent in 2017, before rebounding to 65 percent in 2018.
More new construction is on the way with some 5,200 rooms expected to be completed this year, McCaslin said.
The recently completed 1,000-room Marriott Marquis in downtown is an important addition to the city’s hospitality business, McCaslin said. Marriott Marquis, along with the Hilton Houston Americas give the city a larger inventory of hotel rooms near the convention center. It enables Houston to appeal to larger conventions.
Jan. 31 2017 Realty News Report Copyright 2017