Hotels Coming and Going in CT; Occupancy Flattens

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What goes up must come down – and in some instances, down and out.

That appears to be the situation regarding hotel occupancy in Connecticut during the past year.

At Connecticut venues tracked by revenue was up 1.1 percent last year to $1.06 billion, according to data submitted by Connecticut hotels to a Tennessee-based market research firm, STR, which tracks hotel performance nationally, the CT Post reported recently. 

Calculated according to the industry metric of revenue generated by each available room — influenced significantly by rooms taken out of service for renovations and additions from new establishments — Connecticut saw a mere 0.4 percent gain, less than half the national average, the Post reported.

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News of the relatively weak performance comes as the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce and Workforce Alliance announce plans to partner on a job fair for local employees that were displaced by the recent unexpected closure of the Red Lion Hotel in Cromwell, long among the more prominent facilities in the region. Chamber President Larry McHugh noted, “We were very disappointed in the closure of the Red Lion.” Added Cromwell Town Manager Tony Salvatore, “I was very upset to hear about the closing of the Red Lion, hopefully this can be rectified in the near future.”

The event will be held on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020 in the Arch Room of Cromwell Town Hall, 41 West Street in Cromwell, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, in New Haven, hotels are opening: the Blake Hotel and Graduate New Haven Hotel, with plans being considered by local developer Bruce Becker for a possible conversion of New Haven’s iconic Perelli Building adjacent to IKEA along I-95 into a hotel. The Blake Hotel, a luxury extended-stay facility opened a year ago.  The 108-room boutique hotel is in the heart of downtown, near Yale University.  The 72-room Graduate Hotel opened in October, near the Yale campus, amid some controversy.

The statewide numbers from 2019 were somewhat disappointing compared with the previous year, the Post reported, when occupancy rates climbed following three successive years of declines. Connecticut room sales taxes are described as among the highest in the nation for full-service hotels, which some have said diminishes the state’s ability to draw business, such as conventions and vacation travelers.