Hotel developers in Orange County are committing heavily to groups and convention-goers.
In Anaheim alone, north of 100,000 square feet of meeting space is underway and the city has at least seven hotels under construction.
This includes the city’s first two “four-diamond-level” properties since Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa debuted in 2001:
• The 466-room JW Marriott Anaheim will come first, in May, with 43,000 square feet of meeting space, and
• the 613-room Westin Anaheim Resort is due in August, with 47,000 square feet ready for group gatherings.
See a related story on the latter on page 22 and know that this week’s list, on the next page, offers up 34 hotels with, as of December, more than 1.7 million square feet of meeting space. This includes nearly 600,000 square feet of outdoor space, a fast-growing area of popularity for venues and clients (see story, page 20).
The new additions should boost OC’s total meeting space by nearly 6% over the next year.
Strong Metrics
The 34 properties on the list all count at least 17,000 square feet of space.
And as the Anaheim data suggests, there’s more on the way. Both the new luxe offerings arriving in 2020 have been booking meetings ahead of their openings; each is likely to make the list next year.
The two properties also combine for about 1,100 rooms and developers—Anaheim’s Wincome Group for Westin and a partnership of Prospera Hotels Inc. in Orange and O’Connell Hotel Group in Anaheim for JW Marriott—invested more than $400 million in the projects.
“There’s a lot of new supply coming,” said Alan Reay, president of Irvine hotel broker Atlas Hospitality Group, but average daily rates and occupancy remain strong, as monthly data from CBRE Hotels consistently affirms.
Bullish 2020
Hotels on the list see still-robust demand for meeting space as well. When growth levels off, it’s about holding gains, even when it can seem hotels are at a market cycle high.
“2019 was flat for us from the prior year, but that’s a good thing considering how strong the market was in 2018,” said Kamran Enayat, director of sales and marketing at No. 12 Waterfront Beach Resort, up one notch from the year prior. “2018 was one of our most successful years in the past decade.”
The year could be fragile for travel: there’s an election and currently quiet—yet ever-present—economic and trade concerns have meeting planners taking a close look at shoulder season bookings.
The consensus is bullish.
“During that time, we generally live and die by group bookings,” Enayat said, but “we have seen robust interest for incentive and meetings business, specifically from the medical, pharmaceutical and technology industries.”
Caution, Up
Robert Marusi, director of sales and marketing at No. 8 Resort at Pelican Hill reported strong demand from the financial and insurance realms, specifically on incentives, a vertical that tends to be a more cautious booker.
Due to uncertainties in the market, “companies are booking more short term,” Marusi said.
“Still, the incentive market is at an all-time high for us,” possibly due to companies emphasizing corporate culture.
No. 21 Montage Laguna Beach has seen group business strength after a multimillion-dollar renovation last year, according to General Manger Anne-Marie Houston said.
The resort has boost sales and marketing and “encouraged sales leaders to spend more time out of the resort” to seek new business, she said.
“We had a very successful 2019 and we look forward to another successful year.”
