Winter is coming, and while White Walkers from the long-running HBO television series “Game of Thrones” are not on the local horizon, it is indeed looking bleak for hotels across the state.
Occupancy in Providence this year is projected to be less than half of what it was in 2019. Revenue per available room in the city is expected to drop 67% this year. And, as this week’s cover story reports, the reality is even worse than the numbers suggest. That’s because they don’t account for two of the state’s largest hotels, the Omni Hotel Providence and the Graduate Providence, having been closed since the spring.
So, why would anyone choose to open a hotel in the middle of such an unfolding financial disaster, as the owners of the 84-room Hammetts Hotel in Newport did in June?
Because they took the long view, to a time when the virus subsides and visitors return to the Ocean State. It’s the same perspective driving the owners of two new Providence hotels that expect to open in 2021, The Beatrice, with 47 rooms, and the 175-room Aloft Hotel.
“The No. 1 factor in long-term success is having a little patience,” says Aloft owner Richard Galvin, CEO and president of CV Properties LLC.
While some hotels will undoubtedly close, survivors and newcomers will need to be positioned to meet the returning demand. It’s the nature of business that the Hammetts’ owners and others who’ve persevered understand only too well.
Yes, winter is coming and hotels across the state will feel the sting. But those with a long view know it won’t last and are planning for what comes next.
