Dozens of NYC inns in jeopardy as worldwide tourism set to return

Tourists are ready to rave about the Big Apple during the holiday season after an international travel ban was lifted last week – but it might be too little, too late for dozens of New York City hotels.

The pandemic has already felled a number of famous properties, including the Landmark Roosevelt Hotel near Grand Central Terminal, the Excelsior Hotel on the Upper West Side, and the centuries-old Hotel Pennsylvania across from Madison Square Garden, which now faces the wrecking ball.

More than 30 other hotels, mostly smaller ones that have not yet reopened, are in danger The Post has learned about being sold or going dark for good. The list compiled by GAM Hospitality Advisors includes swanky boutiques like The Hudson – the chic Midtown venue launched by Ian Schrager in 2000 – as well as the Paramount, Avalon and Roger hotels.

The elegant lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel remains empty.Getty Images

“The pressures placed on them by the lack of tourism for the past 20 months, as well as by the city and the union, are likely to result in their permanent closure,” said Geoffrey Mills, president of GAM Hospitality.

The Roger and Paramount hotels’ websites both say they are slated to reopen next spring, despite being on GAM’s list of hotels threatened with closure. The Roger and Paramount did not immediately respond to comment. The Hudson and Avalon, meanwhile, remain closed and have not disclosed any reopening plans.

While tourists are coming back into effect and filling up many hotels on the weekend, business travelers are largely absent and leaving gaping holes in their balance sheets. On Wednesday, according to Jan Freitag, National Director of Hospitality Analytics for the CoStar Group, the occupancy rate was only 63 percent, compared to the “low 90s” on the same Wednesday in 2019.

Unfortunately, the hotel did not survive the toll of the pandemic while traveling for business and pleasure.Getty Images

The huge Jacob K. Javits Convention Center started holding meetings and fairs in August, but the events are smaller, attract fewer attendees, and the calendar for 2022 is filling up slowly. About 17 shows are listed on the 2022 calendar, compared to the 175 shows per year that the convention center typically books.

Hudson, the trendy venue for the 2017 NYC Wine & Food Festival, is one of the houses founded by Ian Schrager that is now at risk.Monica Schipper

“The calendar is fluid and changes daily,” Javits spokesman Tony Sclafani told the Post.

The city’s tourism bureau, NYC & Company, doesn’t expect business traffic to fully recover before 2025, said spokesman Chris Heywood.

Some major hotels that closed last year recently reopened to catch the wave of vacationers with the reopening of Broadway and the borders – but also to avoid hotel workers on leave paying heavy severance payments, industry experts said.

International tourism is about to make a comeback, but will visitors find enough space to leave their suitcases?AFP via Getty Images

In October, Mayor de Blasio signed the law Obligation for closed hotels to pay laid-off employees $ 500 per week for at least six months starting November 1 if the hotel has more than 100 rooms and more than 75 percent of its employees have been laid off during the pandemic.

In addition to reopening earlier this month, the hotels avoided the payments by putting 25 percent of their staff on hold.

The Hotel Association of New York City sued the city last month over the law, arguing that it was beating an industry that had already suffered huge losses.

The Paramount, one of the first “cheap chic” hotels in Manhattan, faces an uncertain fate.James Messerschmidt for the NY Post

The New York / New Jersey & Gaming Workers Union, meanwhile, says nearly half of its members are still being laid off from their hotel jobs.

“The [hotel] The unemployment rate is still significantly higher than in almost any other occupation, “said President of the Trades Council, Rich Moroco, to The Post, defending the severance payment policy.

Since the bill was passed, the New York Hilton Midtown – the city’s largest hotel with 1,878 rooms – has reopened in October. The Hyatt Grand Central New York reopened on November 1, as did Omni Berkshire Place, which announced its closure earlier this year.

But these big hotels don’t all open their rooms because the demand just isn’t there.

For example, one of the five largest hotels in the city “maintains artificially low occupancy as a labor management tool because it is currently unable to hire and train all employees to fully open,” said Sean Hennessey, president of Lodging Consultant and a professor of hospitality at New York University. Hennessey declined to name the hotel.

Still Langham on Fifth Avenue cheered when 35 international travelers arrived in the lobby last Monday, the first day they were allowed to enter the United States. According to a spokeswoman, the guests filled 10 percent of the property’s rooms. Meanwhile, the two Fitzpatrick hotels in Midtown Manhattan, which attract many travelers from Ireland, expect occupancy between 90 percent and 100 percent on the first two weekends in December Owner John Fitzpatrick.

Just a few blocks north of Times Square, seen here, is the huge New York Hilton Midtown.Getty Images

Even so, the hotelier does not predict that either of his two properties will “return to normal” in the next year or even in 2023.

“If the big hotels don’t fill up, the other hotels don’t fill up either,” said Fitzpatrick.