There have been a few changes on a list that rarely sees them.
The Business Journal’s ranking of hotels by room count doesn’t see a lot of jockeying for position year-over-year, because absent renovations, hotels don’t often alter inventories.
This year’s list, though, has a tweak at the very top: Perennial No. 1, Hilton Anaheim, found a way to add a room.
“We took a suite and divided it into two rooms,” said Public Relations and Marketing Manager Claudia Schou. “Many times during the year we’re completely sold out, so it helps to have it available.”
She said, “All rooms have doors, and we can combine them at any time,” plus there are several larger “presidential suites.”
Hilton Anaheim now has 1,574 rooms—the largest in OC by 50%, or 544 rooms, over No. 2, Anaheim Marriott.
Both are a stone’s throw from the Anaheim Convention Center and a short trek down Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland Resort—two landmark drivers of business and leisure travel in the county.
There are 21,508 rooms all told at the top 50 hotels with a minimum of 250 rooms—an average of 430 rooms per property and up 608 from last year. The ranking covers the 12 months ended in mid-May.
Big Changes
An addition to the list accounts for 603 of those 608 new rooms.
Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove opened in March, cracking the top 10 at No. 6.
A spokesperson for Madison, Wis.-based parent company Great Wolf Lodge Inc. said the company counts all 603 rooms as suites based on a separate common area in each, although some rooms used largely by corporate travelers have just one bed.
Most suites include multiple bedroom areas in line with the resort’s main business: the family leisure traveler.
Meanwhile, Howard Johnson Hotel & Conference Center in Fullerton—No. 38 last year—dropped off the ranking as it took 88 of its 289 rooms out of service for renovation into a dual-branded offering now under way.
The 201 rooms that are still open will stay under the legacy budget “HoJo” brand, while “100 rooms are going to be a new Holiday Inn Express,” said General Manager Juan Navarro-Sigala.
The new hotel is “a mid-tier brand” targeting business travelers and increased occupancy, he said.
Occupancy rates in Fullerton are “in the 70s” Navarro-Sigala said, and the property hopes “to crack the 80s” once it pairs the brands.
It will have a net gain of a dozen rooms after the second one opens this fall.
Suite Life
The final four rooms in the year-over-year climb came at another Hilton—and in the same way as Hilton Anaheim.
No. 32, Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport turned four “suites” into regular rooms; Director of Sales and Marketing Kelli Littrell said they weren’t quite suites.
“We had parlors between two rooms with Murphy beds,” she said. “Unless they were used as a suite, they were kind of a last sell.”
Making the spaces available as single rooms meant an additional $916 a day was available based on the hotel’s $229 average daily rate. That opens up a possible $10,000 a month when taking into account the hotel’s strong showing with a corporate clientele midweek. “If we’re going to sell out, it is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” Littrell said.
“The (former) suites were a nice upgrade if someone wanted one. But we are realizing more revenue.”
The changeover took two to three months and included new bathrooms in the 10th floor units.
Littrell said the hotel has seen a slight dip in the number of leisure guests at the John Wayne Airport-area hotel due to the addition of Great Wolf Lodge.
Hotels that just missed the 250-room cutoff for inclusion on the list range from the 249-room Holiday Inn Buena Park Hotel & Conference Center to the 248-room Montage Laguna Beach.
Next year’s list should have another new entry. The Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach (see related story, page 4) opens this week with 250 rooms.
