Last week we learned the Hyatt Regency was in foreclosure, and now KHOU-11 has a bit more on the problems facing downtown hotels:
Experts point to the downtown Hyatt as a casualty of a saturated market. In the third quarter of 2000, it had a 79-percent occupancy rate. During the same period last year, it was only 40-percent full.
It was no surprise to analysts last week that lenders foreclosed on the property, though the Hyatt will continue to operate there.
The number of hotel rooms in Houston has doubled in the last five years.
But consulting firm Source Strategies says the supply of rooms is far outpacing the demand.
Source Strategies guesses it’s only a matter of time before hotels close or are converted into residential condos. The city is much more optimistic, saying we’re only experiencing a bump in the road.
“I think we’ve got a bump in the road in downtown but across the community it’s better and looking a lot better in the future, said Jordy Tollett with the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. “So I think it’s a short-term problem.”
Also, Tom Kirkendall has some thoughts on what the Hyatt Regency foreclosure might mean for downtown:
[…]there is no Super Bowl in Houston during 2005 and, thus, occupancy rates this year will be a better barometer of the overall health of the downtown hotel market. Thus, the foreclosure of the Hyatt is another sign of increasing troubles in the Central Houston, Inc.-coordinated redevelopment of downtown Houston over the past decade. Inasmuch as downtown restaurant and bar business has also slowed recently, it is beginning to look as if the supply of new amenities in downtown Houston needs to slow down and catch its collective breath to allow the demand for such amenities to catch up.
