Downtown Cincinnati hotel market strongest in region

Like most downtowns, Downtown Cincinnati boasts a large collection of hotels catering to tourists, business travelers, conventioneers and more.  At the same time, this collection of hotels was often the place for luxury accommodations with the only three Four Diamond Lodging Award winning hotels in the Cincinnati region being located there – Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, The Cincinnatian Hotel, The Westin Cincinnati.The Downtown hotel market has been one of interest lately as a surge of interest has emerged for a new boutique hotel or two.  The question is whether it makes good economic sense, or if a new hotel will simply canibalize another existing one.According to Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI), in 2008 Downtown Cincinnati compared favorably with the rest of the metropolitan region with a 55 percent occupancy rate while Greater Cincinnati/Hamilton County and Cincinnati USA (3 state region) logged 54.5 and 54.7 percent occupancy rates respectively.  That slight higher occupancy rate was coupled with slightly higher rate per night and revenue per available room.According to the same data, Downtown Cincinnati has now lurched significantly ahead of the pack.  While Greater Cincinnati/Hamilton County and Cincinnati USA hotel markets experienced about a 3 percent decline in occupancy rates, Downtown Cincinnati hotels actually saw greater than a 5 percent gain bringing the 2009 occupancy rate to 60.4 percent for downtown hotels.The largest gains have been seen in room rates though as the average room rate in Downtown Cincinnati is now $123.49 compared to $89.72 in 2008.  Comparatively, room rates in the rest of the region have remained stagnant.  Similar gains were experienced in the revenues per available room.Some of the success was predicted with large conventions booked in advance, but higher than expected room night consumption by some of those conventions has helped tremendously according to DCI.Most recently the Garfield Suites Hotel sold out all of its rooms during the three-day Midpoint Music Festival that took place throughout Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. Quote is coming here.Writer: Randy A. SimesPhotography by Scott BeselerStay connected by following Randy on Twitter @SoapboxRandy