Columbus hotels generated a record “bed tax” revenue again in 2018, with 10 percent tax on hotel stays producing $47.8 million.
This is 2.2 percent increase over 2017, though, was less than the percentage gains of recent years, and the occupancy rate sagged as openings of properties slightly outpaced visitor growth.
Columbus-area hotels that opened in the past year include the Residence Inn and Marriott Columbus OSU; the AC Hotel by Marriott Columbus Dublin; and the Renaissance Columbus Westerville. This year, at least three Downtown hotels are to open: the Canopy by Hilton on Nationwide Boulevard in the summer, and a Graduate Hotel and Moxy Hotel, both in the Short North.
Work is also expected to begin on expanding the publicly financed Hilton Columbus Downtown from 532 rooms to 1,000. Additional hotel rooms, especially those in a very large hotel such as the Hilton that’s connected to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, should help Columbus attract more large groups, said Brian Ross, CEO of Experience Columbus. The challenge is that without new business to fill them, the new hotel rooms could dilute the market, causing occupancy and room rates to tick downward.
On the plus side, Ross said that they just came off of a record year in terms of room-night production for future years. Although he doesn’t yet have final figures, Ross said the Experience Columbus sales team booked groups in 2018 for dates from 2019 to 2025. Ross said that big groups such as the National Urban League, Avon and the American Trucking Associations helped fill hotel rooms in 2018. They joined big annual events including the AmericanHort horticulture convention and the Arnold Sports Festival and Fitness Expo.
The NCAA basketball Women’s Final Four, which drew nearly 20,000 visitors to Columbus in the spring, set a high bar to beat for 2019, Ross said.
This year’s highly anticipated new group is the American Society of Association Executives. The 5,000 visitors it attracts will be just a start, as its members typically bring hundreds of millions more dollars in new-meeting business to a host city over the following years. Ross said he’s not overly concerned about the new city ticket tax or added fees on transportation providers at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.
Bed-tax revenue is allocated by Columbus and Franklin County to operations of the convention center, Experience Columbus and a few other areas such as emergency human services and arts funding at the city level.
Tags: Columbus hotels, marriott, Residence Inn
