Washington Hospitality Association Conference – Spokane, WA
11/29/16
The WHA Conference in Spokane, WA was held at the new Davenport Grand Hotel. The 700 room hotel and conference center was an excellent venue and offered top-tier amenities and sophisticated rooms to its guests. Located in the heart of downtown and within walking distance of the river park and other retail and arts centers, it was a great location for the event.
The program of events included networking and social events on site. Content applicable to the hospitality industry, including both hotel and restaurant business, was delivered throughout the event in both general sessions and breakout sessions. Items covered included issues ranging from safety to governmental affairs, and other trends in the industry. Of most interest were the speakers that discussed the following topics:
- The Future is Now: Working with and Selling to Millennials and Beyond
- Building Your Social Media Strategy
Of most significance for Washington State Lodging was the STR Hotel Industry Performance Overview (available in our on-line archive):
- OCC may be near the peak with Seattle at 78.4% – down .6% from previous year
- ADR is growing but not as fast with Seattle at $158.02 and up 3.5% from the previous year
- RevPAR YTD through August was +2.9% in Seattle going from $120 to $124
- Nationally there are more hotels under construction in 2016 versus 2015 with 67% falling in to the category of Upscale and Upper Midscale
- In Washington…
- There are a reported 88 new hotels on the books, with about 35 hotels currently under construction – this is an increase in supply of 7% to the market
- Supply is outpacing demand
- RevPAR is driven by ADR and not OCC
- Top 26 markets are where 48% of new rooms are being built
- Nationally, the hotel industry shows in 2016 a RevPAR Growth of 3.2% and is expected to have RevPAR Growth in 2017 of 2.8%.
Attendance was light and possibly due to the event being held on the eastern side of the state. Also, Monday night football for the week was being held for the Seahawks in Seattle. Information was well-received and the tone of the meeting from the administrators and coordinators from WHA was up-beat. The new leadership was excited about the marriage of the lodging and restaurant industries and appeared to take a strong stance on advocacy and encouraged participation from all members to make the organization stronger. They discussed having lobbyists in place to assist with issues including labor and advocacy for the promotion of travel and tourism in Washington.
Overall, it seemed that among the few hoteliers that were present at the event, most were in a neutral position and not specifically buyers or sellers. Either they are working on bringing their current projects out of the ground or they are in the process of finalizing sales on a few assets and waiting for the next wave of opportunistic buying to come around the corner with no predictable timing in mind. Some owners are still seeking existing assets, but there was concern over sticker shock from the asking prices of hotels, especially in the Pacific Northwest and more so in Washington state. There is also concern about financing issues and rising interest rates that may be looming in the near future.
As a local service provider specializing in the purchase and sale of hotel and land projects in the Pacific Northwest we were happy to be in attendance at the WHA Conference and to touch base with our local professionals and industry leaders about current affairs, concerns, and projections for our industry.
