Orange County’s hotels saw a 4% decline in employment in the past year, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks hotels according to the number of rooms.
The employment dip is in line with the county’s yearly job losses. In March versus a year earlier, OC lost 71,900 jobs, a 4.8% decline.
The dip is also part of a nationwide downswing in tourism-related jobs.
According to the U.S. Travel Association in Washington, D.C., nearly 200,000 such jobs were lost last year. The group projects another 247,000 jobs will be lost in 2009, including jobs at hotels and resorts.
Laguna Cliffs Resort & Spa in Dana Point saw one of the biggest employment drops on the list, losing 125 workers, or 31% of its workforce in the past year to 275. It was the largest employment cut by percentage.
The cut was primarily due to a renovation that closed a wing of the hotel.
Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort, Fairmont Newport Beach and St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach in Dana Point also saw big slides in employment, each laying off 50 to 150 workers.
Anabella Hotel in Anaheim was the biggest gainer, hiring 17 workers in the past year for 117 total employees.
Of the 51 hotels listed, 22 reported lower employment versus a year earlier, two reported higher employment, 17 were flat and 10 were Business Journal estimates. The Business Journal makes estimates in line with industry trends, but errs on the conservative side so hotels’ actual employment may be lower.
The sour economy also affected local hotels in another way,overall occupancy for the first two months of 2009 was 59%, compared to 68% for the same period in 2008.
Room rates also went down.
Of the 37 hotels that reported their entry-level room rates, just three reported higher rates than last year: Doubletree Hotel Anaheim/Orange County in Orange, Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach and Sheraton Garden Grove-Anaheim South Hotel.
Seventeen hotels reported starting rates identical to last year and the remaining 16 reported starting rates lower than a year ago.
Shorter List
Besides the decline in employment, this year’s list was different in another way: it’s shorter than in 2008.
Last year, we ranked every local hotel with 150 or more rooms.
This year, the smallest two hotels on the list have 250 rooms each.
In all, the county’s largest 51 hotels have 21,229 rooms, up from 20,961 a year earlier.
The Hilton Anaheim retained its longstanding spot atop the list with 1,572 rooms, easily beating No. 2 Anaheim Marriott Hotel with 1,030.
Hilton Anaheim is the second-largest hotel in Southern California, behind the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, which has the top spot by about 50 rooms.
Hilton Anaheim completed a $60 million renovation last year that has helped it attract convention goers and other guests.
“The response to the renovation is tremendous,” said Brad Logsdon, director of sales and marketing at the Hilton.
Leisure business for the hotel is less certain.
“Our short-term bookings are probably at 65% to 70% of normal,” Logs-don said.
But Hilton Anaheim is getting a lot of last-minute reservations, he said.
Last weekend, the hotel sold 100 rooms in a 24-hour period, mostly to leisure guests, according to Logsdon.
Some of those guests responded to the hotel’s 89 at $89 promotion in which the hotel reserves 89 rooms every night to sell at an $89 rate,provided they’re booked 21 days in advance.
Among the largest 25 hotels, none changed rank this year.
Typically, hotels change rank if they add or subtract rooms during renovations.
There are two newcomers to the list.
The 332-room Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach debuts at No. 28. It opened in October.
Pelican Hill is promoting heavily in the Los Angeles market through direct sales, calls to travel agents and the entertainment industry.
“We’re an extension of the L.A. market,” said Giuseppe Lama, managing director.
The 285-room Sheraton Garden Grove-Anaheim South opened last August and makes its first appearance on the list at No. 40.
The Sheraton initially struggled to gain recognition as the economy crashed shortly after it opened.
Now the hotel is developing business with local companies and targeting leisure business “extensively,” according to Director of Sales Denise Figuls.
The newcomers knocked two hotels off the list: the Holiday Inn Buena Park Hotel & Conference Center and Hotel Menage in Anaheim, both of which have 248 rooms.
The city of Anaheim still holds the lion’s share of hotels on the list at 17, seven of them among the top 11. Those hotels account for 8,863 rooms, 41.7% of the total on the list.
Combine that total with the 2,069 rooms in neighboring Garden Grove and the two cities have more than half of the rooms on the list.
The city of Newport Beach is second in room count behind Anaheim, with 2,590.
Irvine ranks No. 3 in room count with 2,193 rooms.
Together, the airport area cities of Newport Beach, Irvine and Costa Mesa have 6,198 rooms in the county’s largest hotels, a 29% market share.
Irvine is hoping that the three cities might combine some marketing efforts to attract larger conventions that could use hotels in all three cities that are near each other and the airport.
Some hotels are hoping makeovers will help attract convention and leisure guests.
Aside from the Hilton Anaheim, the Red Lion Hotel Anaheim was the only hotel to complete a full makeover last year,it christened its new digs in mid-April.
Currently, Anaheim Marriott, Laguna Cliffs Resort & Spa and the Anabella Hotel are in the midst of renovations.
In other changes, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is adding some guest rooms and 50 vacation club units, which went on sale in March.
The Disneyland Resort has three hotels among the largest 10 in OC: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel.
