Download the 2010 OC’s LARGEST HOTELS LIST (pdf)
The expansion of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa was the only real growth in an otherwise dead hotel construction market, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks hotels by number of rooms.
In all, the county’s largest 51 hotels have 21,430 rooms, up by 191 rooms from a year earlier. The Grand Californian drove the gain with 203 new rooms, while others on the list shed rooms.
Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa added two rooms.
Even with the expansion, the Grand Californian maintained its spot at No. 4. The 50 other hotels also kept their rankings from a year earlier.
During the boom a few years ago, dozens of hotels were planned for Tustin, Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, San Clemente and Garden Grove.
Now many of those projects are stalled or have been killed.
A hotel planned for The Shops at Anaheim GardenWalk in Anaheim is scheduled to start construction next year, but the recent foreclosure of the outdoor mall has put that in jeopardy.
There still are a few projects in the pipeline.
The city of Garden Grove is pushing a planned $300 million waterpark hotel through the approval stages for a 2012 groundbreaking. It plans to pay Colorado-based developer McWhinney Enterprises LLC $42 million when the hotel opens.
Fewer new rooms has prompted an uptick in occupancy, which was at 65% in February, the latest numbers available from Los Angeles-based PKF Consulting Corp., a hotel brokerage and consulting firm.
A year ago, occupancy was at 64%.
Hotel operators also have started renovating to compete for visitors.
Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. is overseeing a three-year renovation of its No. 3 Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim that started in August and is expected to be done by 2012. Disney is completely gutting each of the hotel’s three towers.
The renovation is part of a $1.1 billion, five-year makeover of California Adventure, the biggest overhaul the company has made to one of its theme parks.
“This is one of the biggest renovations we have ever undertaken for the hotel,” said Tony Bruno, senior vice president of Disney’s Anaheim hotels and Downtown Disney District shopping area.
Besides Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian, Disney has a third hotel on the list: No. 10 Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, with 489 rooms.
The Hilton Anaheim kept its longstanding spot atop the list with 1,572 rooms, easily beating No. 2 Anaheim Marriott Hotel at 1,030.
Like most hotels in the area, Anaheim Marriott struggled with attracting visitors in the past year.
“Last year was, for lack of a better term, a fire sale as everything was considered perishable because we were on such a downward slide,” said Steve Pufpaf, director of sales and marketing at Anaheim Marriott, who will soon take over market director for much of Southern California. “We were grabbing and doing everything we could to fill rooms.”
The tide could be turning as many hotels report they are beginning to see increasing demand from tourists and from meetings and conventions.
The pick up in demand, coupled with the addition of few new rooms, has prompted some hotels to increase rates.
“We found ourselves in the position to shift our rates a little bit during (spring break), which we haven’t been able to do in a long time,” said Brad Logsdon, director of sales and marketing at the Hilton Anaheim.
Of the 33 hotels that reported their starting room rates, six reported higher rates than a year ago: Anaheim Marriott, No. 8 Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa, No. 13 Irvine Marriott Hotel, No. 32 Embassy Suites Hotel Santa Ana-Orange County Airport North, No. 49 Crowne Plaza Hotel Fullerton and No. 50 Montage Laguna Beach.
Nineteen hotels reported rates unchanged from a year ago. The remaining eight reported starting rates lower than a year ago.
Employment at the county’s 51 largest hotels dropped by 4.4% to 14,279 workers in the past 12 months.
No. 12 Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa saw the biggest employment drop on the list, losing 100 workers, or third of its workforce, in the past year.
No. 50 Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Anaheim was the list’s biggest gainers hiring 15 workers in the past year. It has 85 workers.
Of the 51 hotels listed, 14 reported lower employment than a year earlier. Six reported higher employment. Twenty were flat. Eightwere Business Journal estimates. Year-ago data was unavailable for three hotels.
