Opening year numbers for Grand Hyatt fall short

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...all_short.html

Opening year numbers for Grand Hyatt fall short

Almost 13 years after I dubbed today's Grand Hyatt “the Mother of All Hotel Giveaways,” the numbers are in.

Researching tax abatements for big hotels in the early 1990s, I learned that hotels do create a few good jobs. But most are low-end jobs with few benefits.

I also noticed that a pattern was sweeping the nation's cities. Officials of most cities were focusing on the same downtown revitalization strategy: Try to lure the same big conventions whose free-spending business travelers would fill tax coffers.

[miaht82]

While I'm not sure the Hyatt was not the best possible product to put out there, the fact is that they opened (eventually) at the worst possible time. Not only that but they tried to achieve their goal for these numbers by keeping their prices high even though others dropped their rates to accomodate and attract the traveler. While the GH has newer facilities, the Marriott beat them out for a few conferences this year based on the fact that they lowered their prices to attract the tourists and still kept their prices below the per diem rate for Goverment travelers.
Not sure about the exact numbers (for per diem here in SA) but if there is a conference in town and you know that their max is $119/night, wouldn't you lower your price for the night to that, just for the sake of having occupancy especially if the tourist is not going to cover the difference? And especially if there were 300-400 rooms to be booked? You would think they would but that was not the case with GH up until recently. People that plan events for Gov. conferences don't even look at the GH because of this problem. The Marriott, St. Anthony, Crowne Plaza, Valencia even the Hyatt on the riverwalk have prices that meet the per diem rate for these travelers. Now I know that there are other things going on too but this is a big part of it also. Even the small group that visits Ft. Sam, to visit BAMC, the schoolhouse or the CFI, guess where they stay?? Well I'll tell you where they don't stay; they don't stay on 35 outside the gate, and they don't stay at the GH or more expensive hotels.
I don't expect these numbers to be like this next year or in the future.
It'll help some that there will be alot more students at Ft. Sam. When their girl/boyfriends or spouse comes into town they don't take them back to the barracks/dorms and they usually don't get the first available room outside of the gate. And since this doesn't count as "official lodging," there is not limit on how much they would spend on a room, besides personal budget.

[kornbread]

The Grand Hyatt opened with the Final Four. Imagine if they didn't have that? Their numbers would be even worse.