FROM DRUG CONTROVERSIES TO
Fatalities of horses, racing has been beset by what those in the industry characterize as a ‘very rough’ year. Today, in Baltimore, the sport will try to turn a new page.
One year ago, Medina Spirit entered the Preakness with a dark cloud over him — the Kentucky Derby champion whose defining victory was in peril because of a medication violation and whose famous trainer, Bob Baffert, was facing suspensions in multiple jurisdictions. On top of that, he would run in front of a crowd capped at 10,000, with no infield party at the center of Pimlico Race Course, as Maryland began its tentative path back from the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic. Nothing felt normal about an event that is typically one of Baltimore’s defining spring traditions. The same cannot be said in 2022. There are no drug controversies around the nine horses that will run in Saturday’s Preakness. The crowd will be back, as will the big-ticket musical acts playing on the infield stage.
year and rebooked this year.
Hotel occupancy rates have slowly increased this spring, especially on weekends, due to pent-up demand for travel, said Al Hutchinson, president and CEO of Visit Baltimore. Big events such as Preakness can only help the city and state’s lodging and restaurant sectors, he said.
Some hotels are expecting Preakness weekend occupancy in the 70% to 85% range, he said, while others expect to sell out.
“Preakness being the iconic event that it is for Baltimore, and we’ve been on sort of a delayed use of the Preakness due to COVID, there is a lot of excitement and anticipation for this weekend,” Hutchinson said. “People have been wanting to get out and travel as the springtime hits.”
Hutchinson described Baltimore tourism as going through a rebound this year.
“It may not be back to pre-COVID numbers yet ... but it’s trending in the right direction,” he said.
That’s the case for this weekend for the The Inn at The Colonnade Baltimore in North Baltimore, which used the downtime during the pandemic to renovate the hotel.
“Preakness is definitely creating a demand for guest rooms in the area,” said Rob Breeden, the hotel’s director of sales. “It’s just not back to the pre-COVID standards.”
In a typical year leading up to Preakness weekend, “the hotel would already be sold out, and it’s not right now,” he said. “Our hotel still has some rooms to sell over this weekend . ... It appears that people are coming, but it doesn’t appear as though it’s in full force like it used to be.”
The hospitality industry was among the hardest hit by closures and travel restrictions during the pandemic. Downtown’s hospitality sector saw a sharp dropoff in business and international travel that has not rebounded, though conventions and conferences have begun to return, according to a report released earlier this month by the Downtown
Partnership of Baltimore.
Occupancy rates at downtown hotels averaged nearly 43% last year, below the national average of 57%, according to Smith Travel Research, which estimates that the city overall lost about $7 million in hotel taxes due to the pandemic. Holiday Inn Inner Harbor and Baltimore Plaza Hotel both closed, while others are being converted to housing.
Hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses have typically counted on the state’s largest annual sporting event, the middle jewel in racing’s Triple Crown, to draw more than 130,000 people and generate from $30 million to $40 million in economic impact.
This year, nearly 100,000 people are expected to attend the event. After a two-year hiatus, the infield music concert will return after being canceled in 2020 and held as the more limited Preakness LIVE, with 3,000 concertgoers grouped into socially distanced pods last year.
Saturday’s “InfieldFest,” will feature electronic artists
Marshmello, The Chainsmokers, DJ Frank Walker and rapper Moneybagg Yo.
And a new event, the Preakness LIVE Culinary, Art and Music Festival, will debut Friday, with a music lineup including Ms. Lauryn Hill, Megan Thee Stallion and country music star and Baltimore native Brittney Spencer.
Besides hotel operators, hosts of Airbnb rentals in Baltimore also are benefitting from Preakness and other annual events returning in pre-pandemic form.
Baltimore’s Airbnb hosts earned more than $200,000 over Preakness weekend last year, about half of their earnings for the same weekend in May 2019 before the pandemic. But this spring, business has picked up, said Haven Thorn, a spokesman for the rental company.
Online searches for places to stay in Baltimore for the May 19 through May 22 period jumped 100% monthover-month in March, company data shows. And total earnings of $4.5 million for Baltimore hosts during the first three months of the year have outpaced total earnings of $3.5 million in the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.
Airbnb’s data shows that a travel recovery that started last year has accelerated in the first three months of the year, Thorn said. Often when hotels fill up, particularly over big event weekends, visitors turn to private rentals, he said.
“Amidst a continuing travel rebound, it’s clear that big events are returning and that guests are fulfilling their ... desire for live entertainment and heading back to the stands and seats once again,” Thorn said. “It’s good news for hosts and the local economy, too.”
Some hoteliers said the Preakness will cap off a particularly strong May.
Hotel Indigo Baltimore in Mount Vernon expects to be sold out or at least in the high 90% range by the weekend, but “I wouldn’t say it is all Preakness,” said Kathleen Dombrowski, director of sales.
It helps that Orioles home games and college graduations, such as the Johns Hopkins University’s and Loyola University’s, also fall this weekend. And business from weddings postponed during the pandemic continues to drive room reservations, she said.
“It’s a big mix of everything that’s helping,” Dombrowski said. “We still have some rooms to sell, but it’s definitely much better than the past two years. I would think all of Baltimore should be reporting great numbers for May.”
Breeden, of the Inn at the Colonnade, said there’s still time for visitors making last-minute plans to snap up remaining rooms.
The hotel across from the Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus typically draws widely from the mid-Atlantic for Preakness. This weekend is busy as well from graduations at Morgan State and Coppin State universities, Breeden said.
Still, occupancy will be higher this weekend than during Preakness last year, he said.
“It appears as though we’re climbing back to the pre-COVID standards for Preakness,” he said. “We’re just not there yet.”