The Big Apple’s hotel industry is making a bust-to-boom post-COVID comeback — thanks largely to the migrant crisis.
Industry bigs tell The Post that business people wish to buy hotels and even open latest ones — spurred by the large bucks town is having to drop on accommodating asylum-seekers at them, in addition to a related dearth of rooms for tourists.
“Who would have thought that hotels could be perceived as a darling asset class in comparison with office buildings?” said Daniel Lesser, CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors, at a Recent York Hotel & Hospitality conference held on the Recent York Marriott Marquis last week, host bisnow.com reported. “That’s what’s happening now.”
Just a number of years ago, the COVID-19 outbreak devastated the hotel sector, with travel bans and lockdowns leaving hundreds of rooms empty, causing an enormous lack of revenue that triggered bankruptcies and closures.
Town’s flood of migrants helps to alter that, with greater than 100 hotels now contracting with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration to refill more 10,000 rooms with asylum-seekers.
Vijay Dandapani, CEO of the Hotel Association of Recent York City, told The Post there may be a “small subset of prospective and current hotel owners” who’re considering jumping on the chance and buying hotels or opening latest ones.
A bus of migrants outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan on July 30, 2023.G.N.Miller/NYPost
He said the migrant situation “has actually helped the industry overall as a result of `compression’ led to by hotel inventory being taken off the transient market.”
Two major Manhattan hotels — the Roosevelt within the Grand Central Terminal area and the Holiday Inn within the Financial District — have already been converted to migrant shelters for the foreseeable future, while Dandapani said most other hotels are providing space on a month-to-month basis.
The conversion of the long-lasting 1,000-room Roosevelt right into a migrant shelter couldn’t have come at a greater time for the ability.The Roosevelt closed in the course of the pandemic and remained mothballed until its owners reached a cope with city officials to turn out to be a so-called Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center.
The Roosevelt is considered one of two city hotels which have been converted right into a migrant shelter for the foreseeable future.Christopher Sadowski
Town entered into an overall $275 million contract with the hotel association earlier this 12 months that put aside 5,000 hotel rooms for migrants.
“We stand able to do it so long as needed and so long as hotels voluntarily conform to serve this market, which is the case now,” Dandapani said of the pact.
But Dandapani cautioned there are still fewer hotel rooms now than pre-pandemic and that the industry’s business from tourism has not fully recovered, especially in comparison with other international cities.
Town hotel occupancy rate was still down 12 percentage points in 2022 in comparison with 2019 and for the primary six months of this 12 months is trailing 2019 by a median of 5 points, in line with the hotel association
.
“Paris and London, our principal competitors, were ahead of 2019 numbers in 2022, Paris by 15% and London by 7%, whereas NYC was behind 2019 for the 12 months ending 2022,” Dandapani said.
The Holiday Inn within the Financial District is charging town $190 per room per night.AP Photo/John Minchillo
There are also 118,000 hotel rooms in town now in comparison with 124,000 before the pandemic, in line with the hotel association.
Still, revenue per room is higher than before the pandemic, because of the tighter inventory from the migrants and overall fewer spaces.
The Holiday Inn is charging town $190 per room per night, nearly double the $102 it charged in the marketplace earlier this 12 months, in line with court records.
“As Mayor Adams often says, Recent York City isn’t coming back — it’s back,” a mayoral spokesman told The Post on Sunday.
“Tourism is rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels — with 56 million visitors coming to Recent York City in 2022, 65 million expected this 12 months, and town consistently filling our hotels as much as another major American city.
“At the identical time, greater than 93,000 asylum-seekers have come through our intake system since last spring, and we’ve opened 192 sites to offer beds and services — the overwhelming majority being hotels. With tons of of asylum seekers continuing to enter Recent York City each day, all options remain on the table as all the time.”
A staggering 93,200 asylum-seekers have arrived in town since spring 2022 — with greater than 2,500 still pouring in weekly.
Adams issued yet one more desperate plea for federal help last week. saying, “We now have stepped up and led the nation, but this national crisis mustn’t fall on cities alone to navigate.
“We want a national solution here,” said the mayor, who has ripped fellow Dem and President Joe Biden for failing to assist.
Last week, 54 other city Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Biden demanding that the White House step up to assist the Big Apple with federal assistance and higher control the flow of migrants on the US-Mexico border.
As a substitute, team Biden only promised a federal liaison — and no additional funds. The paucity of support drew backlash from local lawmakers, who complained the president was ignoring town’s plight.