Hotel rooms for Rome: How many are enough?
Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lisa Smith says there is no magic number.
The Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau says there is no magic number.
There’s a fine line between enough and not enough, and Rome officials are trying to figure out what exactly the magic number is for hotel rooms needed in the Rome market.
Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lisa Smith said she was a little surprised a week ago when two proposals for a West Third Street tract came in as potential hotel properties.
When the bureau markets Rome, it currently touts just fewer than 1,000 hotel rooms in the city.
Does Rome have enough hotel rooms, are more needed?
“It depends on bid specifications,” Smith said.
The big challenge for Smith and her staff is to keep the hoteliers busy during the week.
The typical weekday occupancy rate in Rome’s nationally branded hotels run between 62 and 70 percent. On some weekends, Smith said it’s not unusual to have to outsource rooms
to Cartersville and Calhoun. She said many of the large-impact events in Rome tend to happen around the same time. May and October are busy periods for the local hospitality industry.
“Everything possible that could bring an outof-town person into Rome happens in May,” Smith said. “And people love to travel in October.”
The big events in May are generally area high school and college graduations.
In October, Rome hosts big events every weekend, from the Trout Unlimited Chili Cook-off to the Chiaha Harvest Fair and more recently the Wings Over North Georgia air show.
“There’s not a lot of business in January,” Smith said.
She is excited that Twisted, a competitioncheerleading event, is coming back to Rome one week after the Three Rivers Invitational Bull Riding event at The Forum.
City Manager Sammy Rich said he was not particularly surprised that both of the West Third Street proposals were from prospective hotel developers.
“We have had a ton of hotel interest and activity lately,” Rich said. “I think a lot of people are riding the Rome Tennis Center (at Berry College) hotel wave.”
Sarah Cargle, general
manager of the Country Inn & Suites and sales and marketing director for the Holiday Inn Express, coowned hotels on Hobson Way off U.S. 411 East, said she’s not sure how many rooms are already booked for tennis events in 2017.
“It’s my understanding that we do lose some tennis bids based on hotel rooms,” she said. “But what are we supposed to do the rest of the year? In my opinion, the tennis center is great and it’s going to do great things for Rome. But until it grows and they are bringing in something every weekend, then no, I don’t think we need more hotel rooms.”
Rich said one of the proposals — yet to be made public — calls for a 110-room property.
Ira Levy, a Rome businessman, said his proposal
also calls for over 100 rooms, but he had not locked in on a final number. He also said he has a national chain in mind.
“I don’t want to say anything until we’re further along with the city,” Levy said.
The Courtyard by Marriott already under construction on West Third is designed to provide 124 rooms.
The Rome News-Tribune is also aware that a long effort to convert the Fricks Furniture building in the 400 block of Broad Street into a 21room boutique hotel is underway, but the deal has not been sealed yet.
Already on the books within walking distance of The Forum are the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham — which Levy developed — the new Hampton Inn & Suites and the Days Inn.
Levy said that he has already received approval from Hawthorn corporate officials for another addition, adding 38 rooms to that property.
The addition would be constructed parallel to the river between the existing property and the West Third parking deck.
“If you have one hotel in the middle of the desert, it might be busy part of the time, but most of the time it won’t be busy at all,” said Safari Hospitality Vice President Mike Bankston. “But if you have 10 hotels in the middle of the desert, all of a sudden you’ve got a city.”
Bankston said that if the community could support the hotels, they ought to be built.
“Over time it’s going to make a big difference,” he said.
“The viability and the health of the downtown community” will be directly impacted, Bankston added.
The bulk of Rome’s nationally branded, or flagged, hotel rooms are located near the intersection of U.S. 411 East and Chateau Drive. Nine properties are located within a half-mile radius of that intersection: a Country Inn & Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Baymont Inn & Suites, LaQuinta Inn & Suites, Econo Lodge, Best Western and Studio 6. They are all within a stone’s throw of each other, lending some credence to Bankston’s theory about multiple properties located within close proximity of each other.
There has been speculation since construction started on the tennis center that a hotel
on property Berry College owns next to the tennis center would be the next development on the Armuchee Connector. Rich said that he is not plugged into the Berry development team, but said he’s heard the college does have a prospect doing some due diligence on the site.
What is good news for hoteliers is generally good news for local restaurants. None of the flagged properties have full-service restaurants inside them.
Smith said that with the hiring of a contract sales management firm — Safari — to run The Forum, the onus to bring more business to the community is falling back on her office. Safari has already started the process of freshening up The Forum, something Smith said has been needed for years.
“It’s on all of us to reinvest in ourselves,” she said.
Smith said that Rome has to create new opportunities and develop new products to bring visitors to Rome during each of the 52 weeks of the year.
Sam Patel, one of the principals with Shriji Hospitality that owns the new Hampton Inn & Suites, 875 W. First St., said getting people to town throughout the year is critical.
“We don’t think Rome needs more rooms right now,” he said. “There are not a lot of demand generators bringing in that business for additional rooms. I think with the Courtyard and what we’ve done here is good for now until they bring more events to Rome.”