Guest-Room Boom

Easy hotel availability: It's the impossible dream for many meeting planners. With the growth in demand for hotels in the United States outpacing supply growth for the past 69 quarters, according to data from STR, hoteliers are very selective when booking groups. Negotiations can be particularly difficult in the largest markets.

But this wild success has triggered a hotel boom, and the supply-and-demand lines are destined to meet again sometime next year, according to experts. The effects will be felt even sooner in some smaller urban markets, where development is surging.

What follows is a closer look at a handful of second-tier cities with a lot to offer groups -- and where a boost in room count helps to even the playing field.


Austin, Texas
The self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World has more than 250 music venues and 30 years under its belt as the host of the now-mammoth South by Southwest music, film and entertainment festival. This year, the town is seriously upping the ante for meetings. A lodging boom will add more than 2,000 new hotel rooms between now and 2018, giving downtown Austin a total of 10,642 rooms in its inventory, among more than 37,000 rooms citywide.

The difference already is evident: While year-over-year demand growth for the city was a healthy 4.6 percent for the first three months of this year, according to STR, supply growth jumped by a whopping 7.2 percent. And the growth is really just beginning.

Most recently opened is a downtown hybrid project, a connected 134-room Hotel Indigo and 171-room Holiday Inn Express. While not geared toward large gatherings, these properties do offer a total of 3,140 square feet of meeting space, with six out of seven meeting rooms on the Hotel Indigo side. Hotel Indigo Austin Downtown-University, as it's known in full, offers a pool, a business center and a fitness center. The new hotels are near the University of Texas and countless restaurants and music joints.

The northwest part of the city will welcome the boutique upscale Archer Austin late this summer, a 171-room property in The Domain, a high-end fashion and restaurant development. Archer will be outfitted with 16,525 square feet of both indoor and outdoor meeting space for groups of up to 800. Acclaimed chef David Bull, the force behind two well-loved Austin restaurants, will be executive chef at the hotel, overseeing all culinary operations.

Among a slew of properties in the pipeline is the $370 million Fairmont Austin, to offer 1,068 rooms when it opens in summer 2017. Linked by the Canopy Walk to the Austin Convention Center, the hotel will have 106,000 square feet of meeting space of its own, plus 43,300 square feet of prefunction space and a 19,000-square-foot outdoor deck that will host up to 1,800 people.

 

Slated to debut around the same time next year is a downtown Starwood Aloft/Element hybrid project, offering two hotels in a 32-story tower. The 270-room Aloft and 144-room Element will share a full-service restaurant and an outdoor lounge area.

Pittsburgh
Its transformation from Steel City to tech town has been well documented over the past couple of decades, but Pittsburgh is again making headlines with its increasingly trendy lodging and restaurant scene. More than 1,100 new hotel rooms have entered the city's inventory in recent years and, according to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, 761 more rooms are slated to open downtown in the near future. Planners looking for value should note that for the first three months of 2016, year-over-year supply growth outstripped demand growth by a strong margin, according to STR.

What's particularly notable about Pittsburgh's new room supply, however, is that it's really cool. The city, traditionally known for football and sandwiches stuffed with meat and fries, is welcoming well-known boutique hotel brands and has been dubbed a foodie destination by the New York Times.

 

Among recent debuts is the 63-room Ace Hotel Pittsburgh inside the 100-year-old YMCA building in East Liberty. Event spaces include the 4,550-square-foot Gym, which can hold up to 300 attendees in a vintage YMCA gymnasium, or the 2,400-square-foot Ballroom, a bright space with 1920s design touches and large windows overlooking the neighborhood. For vittles, Whitfield is styled like a neighborhood tavern and is helmed by Pittsburgh native Brent Young. Whitfield serves brunch seven days a week and offers a late-night bar menu until 2 a.m.

Kimpton's Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh debuted in early 2015, a 248-room luxury boutique property inside the landmark Beaux Arts-style James H. Reed office building, dating from 1903. This adaptive reuse project provides more than 11,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 2,337-square-foot Sheffield Ballroom. Other options include the 1,067-square-foot, ninth-floor Rialto Suite, which has rooftop access. Catering is provided by on-site restaurant The Commoner, an American tavern that spotlights Pennsylvania-grown ingredients.

Among similarly hip projects in the works is the 186-room Distrikt Hotel in the former Salvation Army headquarters downtown. An early 2017 debut is planned, as are a full-service restaurant, a living plant wall and a rooftop garden.

Also slated to debut next year is the 104-room Forbes Hotel, a luxury boutique entry in the historic Granite Building downtown. The $38 million project is the brainchild of a former New York Times style editor, another Pittsburgh native.

Pittsburgh's first AC Hotel is set for an early 2018 opening, offering 131 upscale rooms next to the David L. Lawrence Convention center. And Rivers Casino Pittsburgh is finalizing plans for its own 214-room hotel, which will connect to the casino and also abut the Carnegie Science Center.


Charlotte, N.C.
"Charlotte's got a lot," the city's tagline, is a particularly apt descriptor for its current hotel pipeline. While year-over-year supply growth for Q1 2016 is just slightly ahead of demand growth, according to STR, what's in store is notable. Nearly 3,000 rooms are in the development pipeline, as reported by the Charlotte Regional Visitors authority, most of them in Center City.

 

Among planned projects is the 250-room Embassy Suites Charlotte Uptown, to open across from the Charlotte Convention Center late this year with 7,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and bar, a pool and fitness center, and retail space.

On tap for next year is the 195-room SpringHill Suites Charlotte Downtown, near the Time Warner Cable Arena. Construction also is underway on a dual-branded hotel tower atop the EpiCentre, a retail and entertainment venue downtown. A 182-room AC Hotel by Marriott and a 120-room Residence Inn are planned for the tower, set to wrap up construction at the end of 2017. The Residence Inn will occupy the upper floors, offering suite-style and extended-stay rooms. The complex already is home to the 175-room Aloft Charlotte Uptown at the EpiCentre.

More than 300 new hotel rooms are expected to open in 2018 at the forthcoming Tyron Place development. The mixed-use project will include 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, all just one block from the Stonewall light-rail station and less than 10 minutes from Charlotte Douglass International Airport.

Among other projects in the works are a 170-room Canopy by Hilton and the 156-room Home2 Suites Charlotte Uptown.

Meanwhile, the 446-room Charlotte Marriott City Center is in the midst of major upgrades to guest rooms, suites, the lobby, the restaurant and public spaces. The makeover should finish up later this summer.


Fort Lauderdale
Development in Fort Lauderdale is happening at a brisk pace. STR finds supply is up by 3.7 percent for the first quarter, growing faster than demand in the resort town. "The past two years have brought us nearly 2,000 new rooms," notes Nicki Grossman, outgoing president and CEO of the Great Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. "And construction continues on nearly 1,000 more, at all price points, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Everglades."

All told, more than $704 million in new hotel development is underway in the city and its surrounding communities, such as Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Sunrise. At the same time, more than $222 million is being invested in improvements and renovations of existing properties.

Many projects are being aimed at the destination's increasingly affluent leisure travelers, meaning planners will have a greater selection of luxury venues at their disposal. Among those are the $200 million Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, to open in 2018. The 23-story property will provide 150 rooms and 95 residences, along 1.8 acres of beachfront. Construction will begin later this year.

In nearby Hollywood, the 307-unit Meliá Costa Hollywood Beach Resort is scheduled to open at the end of this year. The $180 million property will include a rooftop pool, three restaurants and a 24-hour gym.

Massive developments set to debut within the next five years include the master-planned community Metropica in Sunrise; a $750 million addition to the Galleria mall complex in Fort Lauderdale, which would include a 163-room hotel; and a $600 million Broward County Convention Center hotel and facility expansion.

 

The 290-room Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach should open this fall, bringing new luxury accommodations to the property formerly known as the Trump International Hotel and Tower. The newcomer will offer more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space, in addition to 20,000 square feet of oceanfront outdoor space. The largest ballroom will span 4,770 square feet to accommodate events of up to 500 people.

The 349-room Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort debuted last fall on the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk. The latest property in Jimmy Buffett's hospitality empire has eight F&B outlets, three pools and a beachfront surf simulator. The resort's 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space includes a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and a 7,000-square-foot rooftop terrace. The resort also manages the Hollywood Bandshell, an open-air entertainment venue on the beach.