OC New Hotel Rooms Double in 2020
OC New Hotel Rooms Double in 2020
OC New Hotel Rooms Double in 2020 | Orange County Business Journal (ocbj.com)
JW MARRIOTT, RADISSON BLU LARGEST IN STATE TO OPEN
Monday, February 8, 2021
Orange County hotel development bucked statewide trends last year, with 1,401 new hotel rooms opening in 2020, more than twice the amount seen in 2019.
California, meanwhile, saw a 28% drop in new hotel openings as “COVID-19 has continued to decimate the hotel market,” according to a report by Irvine-based hotel consultancy and brokerage Atlas Hospitality Group.
Orange County was the only Southern California region to see an increase in new hotel supply last year, with Los Angeles and San Diego seeing a 5.6% and 60% drop, respectively.
The pandemic continues to have “a huge impact as construction was put on hold in many cases and new openings delayed,” the Atlas report said.
Anaheim, Lake Forest Openings
Seven hotels opened in Orange County last year, the largest being the 466-room JW Marriott Anaheim and the 326-room Radisson Blu Hotel Anaheim.
These two properties near Disneyland also represented the largest hotel openings in the state last year.
It’s the second consecutive year that OC has been home to California’s largest hotel opening. In 2019, the 352-room Cambria Hotel Anaheim Resort was the biggest property to open in the state.
Other hotels that opened in the county last year include:
• Staybridge Suites Irvine, with 168 rooms
• Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, with 125 rooms
• Homewood Suites Lake Forest, with 116 rooms
• TownePlace Suites Lake Forest, with 112 rooms
• Hampton Inn Lake Forest, with 88 rooms
Supply Restraint
Orange County currently has 11 hotels with 1,883 rooms under construction, a 41% drop from 2019 when 3,166 rooms were under construction.
The largest hotel under construction continues to be the 613-room Westin Anaheim Resort. The hotel’s debut has been delayed several times; a new projected opening date is set for March.
The county has 70 hotels with 12,204 reported rooms in planning, an 11% increase over 2019.
Statewide, there are 1,245 hotels with 165,685 rooms in planning, up 3.7% from 2019.
Atlas predicts the vast majority of these planned hotels will not get built, or will be deferred as a result of market uncertainty.
“The downward impact on hotel values combined with the lenders freezing hotel lending, especially on new construction, will continue to be a huge restraint on supply for at least the next three to five years,” the report said.
