AUSTIN (KXAN) – Central Texas travel and hotel occupancy are on the rise with major events and graduation ceremonies, but market reports are not quite booming yet.
“I received a confirmation from booking.com so I have an email confirmation and an extended stay confirmation from the Arboretum,” said Casie Addison.
Addison had already pre-booked her stay for a softball tournament last weekend when she came across a sign at her hotel that read “Sorry, we’re closed”.
“They closed the day before when they were sold out. They ran out of rooms, but they were still sold on booking.com, ”said Addison.
Addison sat in her car all night until around 7am when booking.com Addison finally found another room at the Four Seasons. The last minute room was over $ 800 for one night.
“The prices are definitely much higher. I’m not surprised she paid that much money for the hotel, ”said Rupal Chaudhari, CFO of Homewood and Hampton Inn Suites.
Chaudhari’s hotels on Lakeline Boulevard saw an increase in weekend stays, but hiring to handle that increase has been challenging. Six jobs have been open in their hotels for four months.
“We actually have to shut down rooms sometimes because who is going to clean these rooms?” said Chaudhari.
The lack of business travel also hits home, according to travel experts.
“Austin’s revenue for the lodging market is still down 46%,” said Paul Vaughn, senior vice president, Source Strategies.
Source Strategies, a San Antonio-based hotel consulting firm that tracks the Texas market, recently released a report that found that accommodation revenues in Q1 2021 were also down 31% from Q1 2020.
This continues to be the largest percentage drop in the five largest metros in Texas, according to Source Strategies.
The city of Austin is also still in the process of collecting hotel occupancy tax.
“What we miss is travel Monday through Thursday,” said Tom Noonan, President of Visit Austin. “Ordinarily you would get $ 130 million in hotel tax into town. If we’re only at 50% we’ll be down $ 65 million. ”
Noonan doesn’t expect that number to even out for a few years.
“In 2023 we’ll probably be around 80%, and by 2024 we should be who we were,” Noonan said.
