Hotel leaders in the District are upbeat about the strength of their industry despite fewer hotel guests staying in the city last year.
“In our business there’s a thing called rotation,” Ed Rudzinski, general manager of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, said Thursday during the Hotel Association of Washington’s annual meeting. “All cities have good years. All cities have bad years.”
Hotel occupancy was down eight of the first 10 months of 2006 compared to a strong 2005, according to the District’s chief financial officer.The October occupancy rate was 78.4 percent, down 4.2 percent from October 2005. September’s occupancy rate registered 72.1 percent, down more than 5 percent.
Despite declining occupancy, the average price of a room soared to $208.83 in October. The cost of a hotel stay has skyrocketed by more than $50 a night in only three years — a statistic buoyed by new offerings such as the Mandarin Oriental and the renovated Four Seasons.
“The hotel industry in Washington is extremely strong, one of the strongest in the country,” said Jay Haddock, president of Capital Hotels & Suites. “Like all industries, we have hiccups.”
The District’s 14.5 percent hotel tax pumped more than $170 million into the city’s coffers last year, the association said.
Hotel tax revenues have been steady: November 2006 collections were $16.3 million compared to $15.7 million in November 2005, the chief financial officer’s office reported.
Occupancy rates were challenged in 2006 by a restrictive visa policy, limiting international visitors, and fewer conventions, said Hector Torres, a vice president with Capital Hotels. Industry chiefs say the new 1,434-room convention center hotel, to be built and operated by Marriott, is critical to shoring up convention business.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, who addressed the association, said he is committed to strengthening hotel visitorship, even if requires him to call on out-of-town associations, or to “fly out very quickly,” to lure convention business.
“We ran a retail campaign,” Fenty said. “So I don’t mind knocking on doors or making calls — whatever it takes.”
