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Cruises, conventions helping prosperous Seattle
What’s behind Seattle’s highly successful downtown hotel market?
Its hotel occupancy, room rates and room revenues all ranked among the top four in the US, said Smith Travel Research.
What’s behind it? The answer:
A robust convention business and ever-increasing fleet of cruise ships, according to a new report. And this year is shaping up ever better.
Occupancy in downtown Seattle’s approximately 12,000 hotel rooms was measured by Smith Travel Research at 70.5% last year, up from the 68.2% rate in 2005. That rate of increase was fourth in the nation, behind Nashville, Chicago and Denver.
Downtown Seattle’s average daily room rate was $118.51, 11.6% higher than in 2005, a growth rate that tied with Chicago for third in the nation, trailing only New York City and the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The coming tourist season, which typically runs from Memorial Day through September, has local tourism leaders even more bullish, says The Seattle Business Journal.
The Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers is expanding from 838 rooms to 1,253 rooms in the spring. The hotel’s exhibit and meeting space will increase by 31,000 square feet to a total of 75,000 square feet. The expansion will cost $112 million.
“The opening of the Sheraton’s expansion will enhance our capacity more than any other single thing,” said Don Welsh, president and CEO of Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Late last year, two other hotels opened — the 160-room Pan Pacific Seattle and the 120-room Hotel 1000.
New properties set to open their doors include the 150-room Four Seasons Seattle Hotel in the spring of next year, the 350-room Hyatt at Olive 8 in the summer of 2008 and the 158-room Hyatt Place at South Lake Union.
Report by David Wilkening
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