New Omni buffs up city hotel market
Local leaders approve
The biggest hotel to launch in Boston since the mid-1980s opens its doors next week to a market decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The hope is this sprawling spectacle of a building might help boost the recovery.
“This hotel is going to serve as a destination within the city of Boston,” Omni Hotels & Resorts President Peter Strebel told elected officials, developers and hotel executives gathered inside the lobby for a Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“We’re going to cater to meeting planners but also leisure travelers who come to experience this city and also to local Boston people to make this their home away from home,” he added.
The Omni Boston Hotel is a gleaming towering structure in the Seaport and is designed to be the Omni brand’s crown jewel of convention hotels. It features 1,054 rooms located in spitting distance of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
“Every facet of this hotel has been meticulously curated from the worldclass art that you see throughout the building to the seven unique food and beverage restaurants,” Strebel said.
When the $550 million project broke ground in 2018, industry group CBRE Hotels predicted soaring demand for the swanky rooms. But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, stalling construction for three months and upping construction costs.
Demand for both hotel rooms and conventions has plummeted amid the pandemic as workplaces and conferences have gone virtual.
Boston’s hotel market is among the most depressed in the nation — second only to San Francisco, a recent American Hotel and Lodging Association report found.
Revenue per available room for Boston hotels plummeted from $184 in May 2019 to $61 in May 2021 — a 67% drop, the report found. Nationwide, revenue available per room dropped 22% during that period.
While Boston is slowly getting back to business as usual, experts have said it could be up to three years until business travel — a major boon to the hotel industry — rebounds.
The BCEC has three conventions on the books in October and two scheduled for November, but it’s still a far cry from the pre-pandemic convention business, leaving hope for a slow but improving recovery.
Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey, state Sen. Nick Collins and Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty stopped by to applaud the opening.
About 700 to 1,000 permanent jobs come with the hotel where an average room rate runs in the mid-$300 range depending on demand.
Plus the building was designed and constructed on the “Massport Model,” which CEO and President Lisa Wieland described as a “compelling proposal” that included a diverse team of equity investors, architects, construction firms and design teams.