Hotel occupancy rates in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas are expected to stay red hot during the upcoming summer travel season with five new hotels opening from June through September. A total of three new hotels in the Conejo Valley and Valencia opened earlier this year and two more regional hotels are expected to open by the end of 2007. According to PKF Consulting in Los Angeles, which tracks hotel occupancy rates in the region, although the Southern California economy is slowing down, “high-quality-service providing occupations are on the rise, residential and credit card delinquency is down and corporations are doing well.” “The hotel market is taking advantage of the current state of the economy,” the recent report states. “Travelers are spending more on hotels, food and beverage and ancillary facilities, such as spa services and golf. The rising revenues are leading to more profitable operations ” A slight dip in spring occupancy rates in the region is expected to be the calm before the storm, with heavy demand for hotels expected this summer. The quickly growing Santa Clarita Valley has an occupancy rate of 84 percent and demand is already outpacing supply, according to Jason Crawford, marketing and economic development manager with the city of Santa Clarita. “Many times, we have nights where all the rooms are sold out,” he said. “Santa Clarita over the past few years has been the top occupancy region in the nation.” And this summer won’t be an exception. “Summer is definitely peak season,” Crawford said. As the home of Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor, Mountasia Family Fun Center, Castaic Lake and the Street Art Festival in September, “We anticipate a lot of tourism this summer,” said Gail Ortiz, public information officer for the city of Santa Clarita. Tourists visiting Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags and out-of-state travel will create a demand for hotel rooms, she said. The area’s healthy filming industry and various SCV events, such as the Cowboy Festival, PGA Tour’s AT & T; Champions Classic and USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships in spring and the Loose Goose Wine Festival in fall, have added to the area’s hotel demand. In addition, Amgen’s Tour California, which traveled through Santa Clarita, “was huge for us,” Ortiz said. “It really helped put Santa Clarita on the map. It’s the perfect storm. A lot of stuff has hit this year. We keep creating more demand.” But, she said, “We just don’t have the room. We’ve succeeded as a destination location.” Occupancy rates are the highest during the week, when conferences and business travel are the highest, she said. To meet the growing demand, a 140-room La Quinta Inn in SCV’s upscale Stevenson Ranch community opened in fall 2006. A 157-room Embassy Suites hotel will open by the end of the year near Six Flags. A 140-room Marriott Courtyard Santa Clarita opened in Valencia in May. A future full-service hotel is also planned for the area. The Greens golf course and accompanying restaurant and grill has been sold, and the new owner is in negotiations to tear down the existing buildings and build a hotel on the land, Crawford said. Hike in occupancy In Valencia, PKF predicts a 9-percent hike in occupancy rates this year compared to 2006. In the Conejo Valley, the upscale, luxury hotel the Four Seasons opened in Westlake Village in fall 2006. The 270-room hotel is filling the demand for luxury hotels in the affluent area, said Shelby Taylor, director of public relations for the Four Seasons Westlake Village. “There hadn’t been a luxury component there,” she said. The hotel is owned by David Murdock of Dole Food Companies and nearby Wellpoint. During the week, the hotel is frequented by businesses for travel and meetings, Taylor said. “We’re seeing quite a lot during the week,” she said of business travel. “It’s really the corporate business traveler that’s coming in. We’ve been very pleased with the amount of leisure business.” On weekends, the hotel is frequented by guests who want to take advantage of Four Seasons’ 40,000 square feet of spas, 28 treatment rooms and spa treatment packages, which includes a couple’s $1,600 in-room, seven-hour holistic package. The package includes a yoga session, a rose petal soak, an 80-minute massage, an 80-minute facial, lunch, a green tea manicure and pedicure and two monogrammed robes. The hotel rooms cost $345 to $3,500 per night during the week and start at $285 on weekends, and banquet rooms frequently draw weddings, bridal showers and bar and bat mitzvahs. Taylor said the summer travel season is expected to bring in its fair share of guests. The hotel is a destination for travelers on their way to Santa Monica, Malibu, the nearby Camarillo outlet shops, Ventura beaches and the Ronald Reagan Library in nearby Simi Valley. In addition, the popular Oxnard Strawberry Festival is a draw to summer tourists. This summer, a 160-room Residence Inn in Westlake Village is slated to open in July. That hotel joins the 125-room Homewood Suites in Agoura Hills and the 93-room TownePlace Suites in Thousand Oaks, both of which opened in spring. Conejo growth In the Conejo Valley, PKF forecasts a 40-percent increase in occupancy rates this year compared to 2006. In Camarillo, 5-percent year-over-year growth is expected. Two new hotels in Burbank, a 166-room Residence Inn and a 99-room Hampton Inn, will be opening in summer in time for tourism travel to nearby Universal Studios and increasing travel demand at Burbank Airport. For the year, PKF forecasts occupancy rate growth of 2.6 percent over 2006 in the San Fernando Valley. In the Antelope Valley, the two-week-long AV Fair and Alfalfa Festival at the AV Fairgrounds in Lancaster each summer draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the state. Three new hotels in the area, two of which will be opened prior to the late-summer fair, will help absorb the demand for hotel rooms. In Palmdale, a 120-room Candlewood Suites is scheduled to open later this year. In Lancaster, an 88-room Wingate by Wyndham is slated to open in June, and a Hilton Garden Inn is also scheduled to open in Palmdale in August. The expected summer demand of hotels in the region will come on the heels of a slight decrease in occupancy rates in the spring. According to PKF, hotel occupancy figures in the San Fernando Valley in April, which is the most recent tracking period, were down by 1.7 percent compared to the same period the prior year. Occupancy rates for the Valley in April were 74.56 percent, compared to 75.87 percent the prior year. Average daily hotel room rates in April 2007 were up by 4.4 percent from April 2006, from $119.65 to $124.95. In the Santa Clarita Valley, average daily hotel rates increased by 4.8 percent, from $119.08 to $124.83, from April 2006 to April 2007, PKF said. Occupancy rates for the SCV were down by 4.1 percent, from 86.79 percent to 83.22 percent, from April 2006 to April 2007, according to PKF.
