Money Makers
These 6 Austin hotels are among the most lucrative in Texas
The Ritz-Carlton in Dallas may be the top money-making hotel in Texas, but Austin lays claim to the biggest share of the state’s top 10 revenue-generating hotels.
A new report from San Antonio-based hotel consulting firm Source Strategies Inc. shows Austin is home to six of the leading cash cows among Texas hotels, while Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have one each. The other hotel in the top 10 is nearly 50 miles northwest of Waco.
Source Strategies measures the financial success of hotels by an industry yardstick known as revenue per available room per night, or RevPAR.
Based on RevPAR figures, here are the 10 most lucrative Texas hotels for 2017:
- Ritz-Carlton, Dallas — $319.96
- Four Seasons Hotel Austin — $271.56
- Hotel Granduca, Houston — $262.77
- W Hotel Austin — $254.17
- Hotel San José, Austin — $253.43
- The Driskill Hotel, Austin — $251.56
- Rough Creek Lodge, Iredell — $243.66
- Hotel Emma, San Antonio — $239.47
- South Congress Hotel, Austin — $237.75
- Westin Austin Downtown — $233.52
Key to Austin’s dominance in the revenue category among Texas hotels is the overall occupancy rate. The Austin market enjoyed the state’s highest hotel occupancy rate (74.7 percent) in 2017, followed by Waco (71.8 percent), Dallas (69.6 percent), and Fort Worth-Arlington (67.8 percent), according to the Source Strategies report.
Houston’s occupancy rate for 2017 stood at 65.2 percent, barely above the statewide average of 64.8 percent, the report says. At 62.9 percent, San Antonio was a couple of notches below the statewide average.
The report says Austin “remained the heartiest lodging market in Texas” last year, posting “remarkable” RevPAR of $101.92. No other Texas market had RevPAR above $74.
“Six of the state’s top hotels by RevPAR are in Austin because Austin is a happening market,” Paul Vaughn, senior vice president of Source Strategies, tells CultureMap.
“The RevPAR for these hotels is so high because demand is high, there is not enough supply to meet the demand and, consequently, hotels can charge higher prices,” Vaughn adds. “It can take a long time to build a top-level hotel, and Austin is slow to approve new development. Until the supply grows enough to meet the demand, RevPAR in Austin will stay in the stratosphere.”
While Austin is the revenue-per-hotel-room king among Texas markets, Dallas-Fort Worth — the state’s biggest hotel market — reigns when it comes to overall revenue, the report shows. In 2017, DFW hotels raked in revenue of a little over $3 billion, followed by Houston (nearly $2.5 billion), Austin (slightly more than $1.4 billion), and San Antonio (just over $1.25 billion). Statewide, hotels pulled in almost $10.9 billion in revenue last year.
As for the Texas hotel with the most overall room revenue, the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine takes the title for 2017, according to the report. The 1,511-room hotel produced room revenue of nearly $89.1 million last year.
Behind the Gaylord property for total room revenue in 2017 are:
- JW Marriott Austin — $78.9 million
- Hilton Anatole, Dallas — $69.1 million
- JW Marriott Hill Country, San Antonio — $65.3 million
- Omni Dallas Hotel — $57.2 million
- Hilton Americas-Houston — $54 million
- Hilton Austin — $52.9 million
- Marriott Marquis Houston — $50 million
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