More Bad News in Our Little World
Establishment: Portland Hotels
Location: City-wide
Here’s another article about the sad state of our industry…And remember, this is the pretty spin Craig Thompson is putting on it for the press (no doubt after a loooooong meeting with corporate and the PR folk), it’s doubtlessly waaaay worse!
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/04/portland_boutique_hotels_hit_h.html
Gotta say, this makes me question The Nines claims of 85% occupancy or better (and would they lump into the 59% occupancy or the 53% occupancy?). $131 with parking ($27 last year) and continental breakfast for 2 (conservatively, $15 - $20)puts them below the $99 for 99 days rate. It also tells me they’re operating at a loss. And trimming back an odd housekeeper, front desk clerk or maintenance guy isn’t gonna stem the red ink.
I wonder how painful things are for Pazzo and Red Star?
Comments
effinlost, excellent point about the difference in occupancy rate between a small hotel and larger one! I had completely forgotten that from my sales manager days. However, franchise fees are quite well worth it—you have national sales selling your property and transient recognition and loyalty. In other words, you get “fed”.
I also suspect revenue isn’t down nearly so far for the non-vintage properties since: thier occupancy hasn’t dropped as much, I bet their rates haven’t fallen as steeply, either, they operate on more profitable “business model”, anyway.
On a different forum, I learned that those are, in fact, prettied numbers. Things are very, very bad at the Monaco.
For those that didn’t bother to read the linked article, it is important to clarify this original post. Its not the nines that is offering the free parking and breakfast, its the Vintage Plaza. They are just imitating the nine’s under-selling strategy. By the way, was it ever impressive that boutique hotels, that usually have fewer rooms than the chains, have a high occupancy percentage? Comparing occupancy percentages between a hotel with 100 rooms with one with 800 is not that accurate. Of course boutique hotels don’t have to pay the high franchise fees of a chain.