The Press-Enterprise
01/15/19

Does Riverside County Need 89 More Hotels?
By Jonathan Lansner

https://www.pe.com/2019/01/15/does-riverside-county-need-89-more-hotels/

Riverside County’s lodging industry has plans to add 89 more hotels after nine opened the past two years.

The annual hotel construction report from Atlas Hospitality shows 3 hotels opened in 2018 in Riverside County, half of the six in 2017. Last year’s openings had 447 rooms vs. 1,236 in ’17 — a drop of 64 percent.

That decline seems to be a fast-growth industry taking a breather than any actual slowdown.

The short run looks cool: 14 hotels were under construction at year-end vs. 13 in ’17. That lodging will hold 1,746 rooms vs. 1,909 a year earlier — a fall of 9 percent.

But Riverside County’s developers are in planning stages for an additional 75 hotels vs. 53 a year earlier — a rise of 42 percent. That lodging will hold 11,837 rooms vs. 9,422 a year earlier — a rise of 26 percent.

PS: Riverside County represented 6 percent of hotels opened statewide last year vs. 9 percent in ’17 and 7 percent of lodging being built or planned.

PPS: The average number of rooms per hotels recently built, under construction or planned is 156 vs. 141 statewide.