Atlas Hospitality Group, a real estate brokerage that tracks the hotel industry, reported 36 new openings statewide so far this year. The biggest hotel that has come online was in development for nearly 25 years.

California has seen 36 hotels open as of June 2025, a 64% increase over all of 2024, according to a July 2025 report from Atlas Hospitality Group. The increase was led by a 1,600-room hotel in San Diego County. The North Bay, however, has had one hotel open so far, a Hilton property in Rohnert Park. (Getty Images)

CHERYL SARFATY | NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL | July 23, 2025, 4:10PM | Updated 17 hours ago

What a difference a half-year makes.

Six months into 2025, California has had 36 hotels open, a 64% increase over all of 2024, according to a new report.

One hotel in San Diego County accounted for more than half of that increase, according to Atlas Hospitality Group, a real estate brokerage that tracks the industry.

The 1,600-room Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista is the largest to open in 2025 — and in the state — in the last 33 years, according to Atlas Hospitality Group’s California Hotel Development Survey 2025 Mid-Year. Its mid-year hotel sales survey is expected next week. Atlas also releases year-end surveys in both categories.

“There are very few locations in California that can still drive a lot of convention business and have the land available for such a sizable project, (and) San Diego County was able to offer that,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Newport Beach-based Atlas.

“This project was first announced in 2001, so it has taken almost 25 years from start to finish,” he said. “Most developers do not stay with projects this long, and the Gaylord owners are one of the very few.” Marriott operates the property.

Of the 36 new hotels that opened by June, Los Angeles County had the most, with five new hotels.

Santa Clara County had three new hotels come online in the first six months of the year, the most in Northern California.

In Sonoma County, the 90-room Home2 Suites by Hilton in Rohnert Park was the sole hotel to open in the North Bay so far this year, according to Atlas.

There are currently eight hotels listed as being under construction in the North Bay, according to Atlas’ survey.

— Napa County: Calistoga Hills Resort (110 rooms), Home2 Suites American Canyon (102 rooms) and The Elene Napa (50 rooms).

— Sonoma County: Graton Resort in Rohnert Park (addition of 200 rooms), Appellation Healdsburg (108 rooms), Duchamp Hotel Healdsburg (addition of 14 rooms), Cotati Hotel (153 rooms), and the Windsor Town Green/McClelland Hotel (149 rooms).

The Cotati Hotel and McClelland Hotel projects, however, have stalled.

Construction has stopped at the Cotati hotel site because of a delay in the project’s financing, according to Atlas’ records as of July 7. Cotati City Manager Damien O’Bid corroborated the financing status of the property.

Construction on the McClelland Hotel began in October 2023, but “stopped due to permit delays, change on site plans and difficulty with obtaining a construction loan,” Reay said.

For now, “there is no plan to develop,” the McClelland Hotel, Windsor Town Manager Jon Davis told the Press Democrat in a July 23 story.

“(We) have seen a big increase in hotel projects that started and then have stopped construction,” Reay said.

Economic uncertainties— including increased costs in financing and construction— continue to plague progress on new hotel developments, Reay noted.

Lenders also remain wary, but if a hotel developer has secured financing, they have chosen to move forward with construction, he said.

But that doesn’t mean the hotel project will reach the finish line.

“It will be interesting to see how many of the ‘under construction’ (projects) get completed,” Reay said.

Cheryl Sarfaty covers tourism, hospitality, health care, aviation and employment. Reach her at cheryl.sarfaty@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4259.