BY RAY HANKAMER
rhankamer@gmail.com
Takeaway: 2014 was a boom year for hotel occupancy in Houston (69%), but in 2015 there was the beginning of the drop in oil prices and the decline in demand (-2.6%). By 2021 occupancies will
have climbed slowly back to 66% barring any unforeseen events. The Super Bowl in the first quarter of 2017 was boon PR-wise for our city, but over the year it will have contributed only nominally to hotel occupancy / revenue.
- 2016 was the bottom, as demand fell and new supply was coming on stream; 2017 transition year, with gradual return to stabilization over next 4-5 years
- 2014 had been a stellar year with occupancies about 10 % over traditional levels
- The new downtown Marriott convention hotel will be a ‘game-changer’ in Houston’s ability to attract future conventions-we now have an attractive number of rooms within 3-4 blocks of the George R. Brown Center
- 5,200 new hotel rooms will have opened in the CBD by the end of 2017
- Katy-Westchase-Energy Corridor, NW, and IAH have been hardest hit by lower levels of O & G industry travel