Nearly 1,000 New Hotels Are Still Opening During the Pandemic. Why?
For many new hotels, the decision to open is one that’s been years—and millions of dollars—in the making.
August 17, 2020 | Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — The new White Water hotel on California’s central coast has a lot going for it: a location on a moonstone-studded beach, generously sized rooms, and Scandinavian-inspired interiors by Los Angeles designer Nina Freudenberger.
Going against it? Oh, just the worldwide collapse of the hospitality industry.
White Water is one of the thousands of hotels that have either opened or will open in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to hospitality data firm STR, occupancy rates dropped to below 30% across Europe in March; numbers from M3, a firm that provides accounting services to hotels across the U.S., show that domestic occupancy figures declined by half, even as hotels slashed prices. It’s all part of a recession that the International Monetary Fund in June predicted would hit $12.5 trillion in global losses—almost 5% of the world’s gross domestic product.
