W hotel coming to Houston (Dallas, San Antonio: condo, hotels, luxury)

[ParaguaneroSwag]

I remember a post not that long ago where people asked about why Houston didn’t have a W hotel. But they just announced it a few days ago. They plan on building it in they plan on building it at the building in 701 Avenida de Las American right next to George R Brown convention center.

[detachable arm]

Wake me up when we get a Fairmont like Beijing, Dubai, London, Banff, Austin and Dallas.

[Mr. Clutch]

Good location for it. They're putting it on the top of the garage for Partnership Tower. Should help funnel some more people into all those restaurants around Discovery Green.

[haudi]

I'm a multiple year Starwood Platinum 75 and I go out of my way NOT to stay at a W whenever I can lol. I don't know why everyone freaks out about this chain of hotels.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

Wake me up when we get a Fairmont like Beijing, Dubai, London, Banff, Austin and Dallas.

Always gotta be that one person huh?

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

Wake me up when we get a Fairmont like Beijing, Dubai, London, Banff, Austin and Dallas.

I don't know about the new one in Austin, but the one in Dallas is not one of their top-end hotels...it's nice, but not top rung.

I'm waiting for a Ritz-Carlton (we used to have one), Park Hyatt, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, or Peninsula. But...

As I've said before, really high-end hotels of size (more than 100 rooms) are very hard to make work in Houston, unlike Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. We historically don't get high enough weekend rates - weekend meaning Friday through Sunday nights. For whatever reason, upscale travelers don't seem to want to spend leisure weekends in Houston like they do those other three cities. You need to be more than a four-night hotel market in order to support the high operating costs of a luxury full-service hotel. Hopefully the W will succeed, but I fear it will be difficult.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

Wake me up when we get a Fairmont like Beijing, Dubai, London, Banff, Austin and Dallas.

just like Dallas and Austin have a St Regis? Like Dallas even has a JW Marriott? Lol only say this because I see trolling. Dallas has luxury hotel chains Houston doesn’t have but that’s vice versa.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I don't know about the new one in Austin, but the one in Dallas is not one of their top-end hotels...it's nice, but not top rung.

I'm waiting for a Ritz-Carlton (we used to have one), Park Hyatt, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, or Peninsula. But...

As I've said before, really high-end hotels of size (more than 100 rooms) are very hard to make work in Houston, unlike Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. We historically don't get high enough weekend rates - weekend meaning Friday through Sunday nights. For whatever reason, upscale travelers don't seem to want to spend leisure weekends in Houston like they do those other three cities. You need to be more than a four-night hotel market in order to support the high operating costs of a luxury full-service hotel. Hopefully the W will succeed, but I fear it will be difficult.

Considering that not only the W hotel is planned but the Le Meridien just opened, the Post Oak is opening soon, the Intercontinental (I know not as luxurious but still up there) is almost done being built, the Equinox beginning construction, and all the other “boutique hotels” coming soon, if this is true then Houston has a serious problem because that many luxury hotels opening so close together if your statements is right then a huge hotel depression would be underway. Not to mention the property that Loews hotels bought in Uptown.

Anyway, either something has changed for Houston to be able to support all these luxury hotels coming or this is a dangerous fluke. But historically, no Texas city has been on Atlanta’s level of attracting this kind of hospitality.. Admittedly, Houston took longer than it’s Texas counterparts, but if they’re all opening close together it must be for a reason.

[madrone2k]

This reminds me of earlier discussions on why Houston doesn't have the "fancy" hotels that certain other cities have (like Dallas, Austin, or Atlanta). I still struggle to put my finger on why that is, but I suspect it's a combination of Houston not having the "sizzle" that the other cities do, partly because of it being perceived as the Rodney Daingerfield of cities (google Rodney, if you need to).

Another aspect is what I think of as the "if you build it, they will come" concept. However, for that to work, a project cannot be done on the cheap, as has often been done in Houston.

It is interesting how many new hotel projects are going up in downtown Austin (along with condo buildings). I haven't researched the volume of their convention bookings compared to Houston, but I think they also get a lot more occupancy just from people just visiting on their own. A single anecdote: I once stayed in downtown Austin and met a guy in the lobby who was from New York City and just flew down to see it based on all the media buzz. He seemed to think he could get around without a car, which wouldn't work for me. But, I guess for people who just want to visit bars and a few music sites (i.e., no hiking or wine tasting), that might possibly work.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by madrone2k

This reminds me of earlier discussions on why Houston doesn't have the "fancy" hotels that certain other cities have (like Dallas, Austin, or Atlanta). I still struggle to put my finger on why that is, but I suspect it's a combination of Houston not having the "sizzle" that the other cities do, partly because of it being perceived as the Rodney Daingerfield of cities (google Rodney, if you need to).

Another aspect is what I think of as the "if you build it, they will come" concept. However, for that to work, a project cannot be done on the cheap, as has often been done in Houston.

It is interesting how many new hotel projects are going up in downtown Austin (along with condo buildings). I haven't researched the volume of their convention bookings compared to Houston, but I think they also get a lot more occupancy just from people just visiting on their own. A single anecdote: I once stayed in downtown Austin and met a guy in the lobby who was from New York City and just flew down to see it based on all the media buzz. He seemed to think he could get around without a car, which wouldn't work for me. But, I guess for people who just want to visit bars and a few music sites (i.e., no hiking or wine tasting), that might possibly work.

I think that the main reason is primarily due to the fact that Houston doesn't have as many cohesive districts that support the critical mass necessary for a lot of those fancy hotels to thrive. Dallas and Austin both have most of their high-dollar development in contiguous areas - in Austin most is in or around downtown, while in Dallas most of that development funnels north from downtown. It makes it a lot easier to capture customers when growth is structured in that way and a lot less risky in many cases. If Houston was laid out more conventionally, it likely would have a lot more of that type of development imo.

With that said, I think the reason we're catching up now is because a lot of the discontiguous activity centers, particularly those inside the Loop, have started to grow together and create more critical mass overall. I think what the GHP has done in their little corner of downtown is very smart as well because you're starting to see the beginnings of a somewhat major entertainment district spring up around the convention center. All of the underpinnings are there and once the residential population in that area can sustain those businesses that area should grow tremendously, with a lot of that growth being high-end. I could even see some more shopping setting up in that area in the future if the growth continues, but that's probably still a few years down the line.