Rhode Island’s hotel crunch will be eased a bit when the new Courtyard Marriott opens in Providence in mid June. But even with the additional 216 rooms that the new hotel – located at the Union Station Plaza across from Providence Place – will bring, it will not satisfy all the demand for hotel space, experts say.
The Ocean State last year had the nation’s second highest hotel occupancy rate, according to a study by Smith Travel Research. Rhode Island’s 73.1 percent occupancy rate trailed only Las Vegas’s 74.2 percent. And this has come despite the high prices that hotels charge. Rhode Island’s average daily room rate of $102.07 was the fourth highest in the country, behind New York, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.
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Given the demand, Courtyard Marriott officials say they do not expect to take business away from Providence’s other hotels. And they agree with those who say that demand will remain high even after the hotel opens.
”It’s a pretty hot market,” said Celeste Craven, director of sales for Interstate Hotels, of Pittsburgh, which will manage the hotel. The hotel’s owner is FFC Hospitality, based in Pittsburgh. The hotel is being built according to the standards of Marriott International Inc.
Though the new hotel won’t alleviate all the city’s space problems, getting this far was still an achievement. In November of 1998, developer Ron Marsella broke ground on the hotel. During the ceremony to mark the event, he said that the idea to put a hotel there was born during an August, 1978 meeting with Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. After 20 years, the idea is finally coming to fruition. Marsella is building the hotel along with developers Arthur Robbins and John Macliver.
The 7-story hotel will accommodate business and leisure travelers. One hundred twenty-seven of the rooms will have king-size beds and 67 rooms will have two, queen-size beds. The hotel will also feature six suites that include a bedroom, wet bar, living area, two televisions, a refrigerator, and microwave.
The guest rooms will also be equipped with two, two-line telephones, a feature Craven said business travelers find useful. High-speed Internet access will also be available, for a fee, in the guest rooms and meeting rooms.
The hotel will also feature a meeting space that can hold from 125 to 150 people, a library/business center, a lounge – with fireplace – and a restaurant that serves breakfast only, said Brian Smith, the hotel’s general manager.
Most of the work now being done on the building – which is designed to fit in with the Union Station Plaza – is on the interior, Marsella said. But he added that a good deal of site work also remains.
But while the new hotel will be welcome, it won’t be the end of Providence’s hotel shortage, said Jim Wood, president of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. The hotel will generally offer only 75 to 150 rooms for conventions, he said, which will not be enough to help convention sales much.
“Seventy-five to 150 rooms is a nice contribution, but it’s certainly (not enough) to satisfy the demand the city is seeing,” Wood said. “There is a need for several more hotels.”
Wood added that Providence is growing as a destination city, as evidenced by its strong hotel occupancy rates and the high price of rooms. If the city had more hotels, he said, the convention and visitors bureau would be able to expand the size of the conventions that it holds, using more of the 400,000 square-feet of the Rhode Island Convention Center. From 38 to 40 conventions are held there each year now, he said. In addition, the building hosts meetings, weddings, and consumer shows. “The demand (for hotel space) is strong,” he said. “That tells you that there’s room for expansion.”
The new Courtyard Marriott is already taking reservations several years in advance, according to Craven, who said that groups are already reserving rooms as far ahead as 2008. Those who come to the hotel will find that it’s nearly identical to other Courtyard hotels they’ve visited, she said. The only differences here are that this one will have more rooms, 216 compared to the typical 100 to 150, and the rooms will be slightly wider, 13 feet 4 inches instead of 12 feet 8 inches. The other slightly unusual aspect of the hotel is that it is located in a city, near a convention center. Most Courtyard Marriotts are in suburbs, she said.
Aside from that, the hotel has been designed to look familiar to visitors, she said. She added that hotel room sales have been strong in Rhode Island even in the off months of January and February. “We (expect) to be very busy, given the current state of the market in Providence and the shortage of hotel rooms,” Craven said. “It’s getting to be so there’s no off months anymore. Business is booming year-round. It’s a great problem to have.”
