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This was mentioned in the April Fool's joke about SxSW moving to San Antonio, but just like any joke, there's always a grain or more of truth in it, or it really ain't that funny.
The underlying premise was that SxSW had outgrown Austin because of one main factor, the lack of hotel rooms. Now, I've been thinking about that, and this is one of the few cities that I know that doesn't have a full fledge Marriott, Sheraton, and Crowne Plaza. The only full size chain hotel is the Austin Hilton.
Some people mentioned that perhaps we dropped the ball when we're building condos instead of hotels and I think they have a good point. If we just would take one of the high rise condos and if a major hotel would have been built there, like a 1000+ hotel, it would probably contribute more to our city than another condo.
The fact is that we will become more of a tourist destination with the F1 track coming up and as our fame rises.
So now the question is: Why have the major hotel chains stayed away from Austin for so long? Is there something that I'm missing or shouldn't there be a large 1000+ hotel. Take New Orleans, they have 3 that I know of right off the bat (Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton). We have zero and the Hilton is only an 800 room hotel.
I really think the city planners and the developers dropped the ball on this one. There is huge unmet demand right now.
I remember when I was in Phoenix a few years ago, the same question came up when we had the Superbowl there. The new stadium was on the west end of town, while most of the larger hotels were located downtown/airport area or in Scottsdale (northeast end of town) as that is where the resort/conference crowds are. They did build up a bit on the west side of town, but I think that now the hotels there are struggling a bit.
It's hard to accommodate the ever-growing SXSW traffic and I doubt the city will catch up to the demand that week anytime soon, although this year seemed worse than ever when you have folks sleeping in cemeteries & bathing in public fountains (maybe those specific groups of
people would have done that anyways, even if there were hotel rooms available? Makes me wonder).
I would probably guess that a large hotel is warranted regardless, but I suppose the challenge in building hotels vs condos is: are there more people who are moving to downtown vs. people coming just to visit. I haven't been here long enough to know how prevalent the tourism industry here is -- I am sure the races will funnel in some traffic but the question remains is there enough demand & tourist traffic the other 50 weeks of the year to warrant a mega hotel? I'm certainly no city planner, just bringing up the obvious I suppose.
Let's look at the calendar year. In March we have SxSW which will sellout all hotel rooms for a week regardless of the number of hotel rooms. Every May we have all hotel rooms soldout when UT holds their graduation ceremonies and UT students' relatives come to town. Late August we have a lot of freshman parents staying in town for a while helping their child get ready for college. Every fall UT home game will sellout all hotel rooms, and ACL will too (a non UT home game weekend). I think we have pretty good visitation during the winter because of our mild weather. So the only real question is the summer. New Orleans had the same problem years ago, they needed more tourists during the summer, so they started some summer festivals and the like. I presume if they build the Cedar Park Schlitterbahn we'll be getting a lot of tourists staying downtown for the fun and then going to Schlitterbahn in the day.
Like I said though, perhaps there's a good reason why there are not more hotel rooms. In New Orleans it seemed that the only thing they were building were new hotels (well really they were converting former warehouses, banks, and other commercial buildings into high rise hotels). It seemed that they could never build fast enough to meet demand, but New Orleans is one of the premier tourist destinations in the US.
Put very simply, there aren't a lot of large hotels downtown, because there isn't the need except twice per year (SXSW and ACL). Most of the rest of the year the hotels would be less than half full. Austin is not a tourist destination, and never will be. Besides, the city is way more interested in the high rise condos!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach
This was mentioned in the April Fool's joke about SxSW moving to San Antonio, but just like any joke, there's always a grain or more of truth in it, or it really ain't that funny.
The underlying premise was that SxSW had outgrown Austin because of one main factor, the lack of hotel rooms. Now, I've been thinking about that, and this is one of the few cities that I know that doesn't have a full fledge Marriott, Sheraton, and Crowne Plaza. The only full size chain hotel is the Austin Hilton.
Some people mentioned that perhaps we dropped the ball when we're building condos instead of hotels and I think they have a good point. If we just would take one of the high rise condos and if a major hotel would have been built there, like a 1000+ hotel, it would probably contribute more to our city than another condo.
The fact is that we will become more of a tourist destination with the F1 track coming up and as our fame rises.
So now the question is: Why have the major hotel chains stayed away from Austin for so long? Is there something that I'm missing or shouldn't there be a large 1000+ hotel. Take New Orleans, they have 3 that I know of right off the bat (Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton). We have zero and the Hilton is only an 800 room hotel.
I really think the city planners and the developers dropped the ball on this one. There is huge unmet demand right now.
There is some truth to Austin not being a tourist destination, at least not until very recently. I think there are 2 primary reasons for the lack of big hotels here:
1) Not historically a tourist destination. Austin's never had many museums, still doesn't have a planetarium, no amusement park, no sizable convention center(until recently), tiny airport (prior to ABIA), etc. These things aren't really important to people who live here, but tourists might expect them.
2) 4th largest metro in Texas. You have to imagine that any major hotel chain considering expansion over the years would probably look to the 3 bigger Texas markets for a large (800+) hotel before Austin.
2b) Limited exclusive "feeder" region. Along the same lines as #2, our position in the TX triangle surrounded by larger cities means that there isn't much of a region which relies on Austin as it's "big city" where everything happens. Just central Texas, basically, and not even all of it. Other cities Austin's size (esp. in the western states) are the largest places in much larger regions -- so they are the hub of travel, commerce, health care, business, etc. for a much larger area. Those kinds of cities, even though they are not much bigger than Austin, probably need more hotel rooms.
Now, these things are all dynamic, and Austin is certainly on the radar for a lot more tourists (and hoteliers, I'm sure). It's neat to be here now, while it's growing so rapidly... and certainly things like F1 and the continued success of SxSW will lead to more big hotels. But the reasons for the lack of big hotels so far seem pretty clear to me.
There is some truth to Austin not being a tourist destination, at least not until very recently. I think there are 2 primary reasons for the lack of big hotels here:
1) Not historically a tourist destination. Austin's never had many museums, still doesn't have a planetarium, no amusement park, no sizable convention center(until recently), tiny airport (prior to ABIA), etc. These things aren't really important to people who live here, but tourists might expect them.
2) 4th largest metro in Texas. You have to imagine that any major hotel chain considering expansion over the years would probably look to the 3 bigger Texas markets for a large (800+) hotel before Austin.
2b) Limited exclusive "feeder" region. Along the same lines as #2, our position in the TX triangle surrounded by larger cities means that there isn't much of a region which relies on Austin as it's "big city" where everything happens. Just central Texas, basically, and not even all of it. Other cities Austin's size (esp. in the western states) are the largest places in much larger regions -- so they are the hub of travel, commerce, health care, business, etc. for a much larger area. Those kinds of cities, even though they are not much bigger than Austin, probably need more hotel rooms.
Now, these things are all dynamic, and Austin is certainly on the radar for a lot more tourists (and hoteliers, I'm sure). It's neat to be here now, while it's growing so rapidly... and certainly things like F1 and the continued success of SxSW will lead to more big hotels. But the reasons for the lack of big hotels so far seem pretty clear to me.
But what I don't understand is that Austin is a very high tech centric area, so there are a lot of executives that visit from Silicon Valley, and generally they expect large full service 5 star hotels downtown. We just don't have that. If you look at San Jose, they have several very large hotels right downtown, and they are in a similar situation (SF is the tourism spot for them while SA is the tourism spot for us).
Also, I don't believe the outside area is well served either. Let me give the example of around Lake Travis. There are only a couple of boutique hotels around Lake Travis, yet it is a very scenic lake. There are very few hotels in the Hill Country itself, yet it is the most desireable part of Texas. If you don't have any hotels how can you expect to increase tourism in an area?
I heard there will be a large hotel at the F1 complex, but still, one hotel near SH130 won't do the downtown any good. They need high rise hotels right smack downtown, at least a couple with 1000+ rooms. You cannot be considered a large city until you have them.
Now granted, I'm not a big fan of chain hotels, but you have to have them to accommodate large numbers of tourists. Boutique hotels are nice, but they won't house the tourists.
Big hotels don't attract tourists, tourists attract big hotels....
As such, when there is a demand for them, they will be built. Heck, maybe there are some on the drawing boards, I don't know, but there is currently not enough demand for them to be practical. The private sector is pretty efficient in targeting the time and place for investment - if there actually is money to be made, someone will go after it.
Austin is probably, for better or worse, destined to be a little sibling to the three major metro-plexes in Texas. San Antonio is an easy day trip and Houston is not that much further away. Houston and Dallas have massive hub airports. So infrastructure-wise, Austin is a little redundant. As for tourist destinations, it will be a long time (if every) before Austin rivals her neighbors. We do not have a pro sports team (a plus in my opinion). We do not have major amusement parks and aren't likely to get them (Sea World, Fiesta Texas, etc.), our museum complex is likely to never get near Houston or Dallas.
All that said, Austin's tourism is low-cost, as well as low-key. No sports team means no bonds to pay, no amusement park means no huge highway structure to build. Austin draws a different crowd and should probably try to continue to target that crowd, as it is potentially under-served by the neighbors....
A couple of years ago Marriott was moving forward with a 1000 room hotel downtown. That's why Las Manitas had to close, but the project got put on hold with the recession. I'm sure if the economy continues to recover, you'll see these all pop back up on the radar soon.
I know Starwood is building a new concept hotel downtown as well near 5th and Colorado.
But what I don't understand is that Austin is a very high tech centric area, so there are a lot of executives that visit from Silicon Valley, and generally they expect large full service 5 star hotels downtown.
And when they do come they stay at the Hilton downtown or the Omni or the Intercontinental or out at the Hyatt in the arboretum. There's plenty of room for the occasional visit. Anyone below VP stays at an Embassy Suites!
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