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80% of NYC Hotels face default

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I wrote an article back in October pointing to the true NYC hotel occupancy level being under 10% so this doesn’t come as any surprise, but it’s gut-wrenching nonetheless. Vaccine news should surely help things out in 2021, but as pointed out in an FT article, the CEO of the Hotel Association of New York doesn’t see things rebounding until at least second quarter, and believes if half of the 640 hotels make it, that would be great outcome. That’s putting stress on the commercial mortgage market that financed the expansive growth of these hotels over the last decade. Currently, 4 out of every 5 hotels in the NYC area are either in default, or on a watch list. As New Yorkers prepare for a possible second lockdown I thought I’d peruse the rates of Hyatt hotels in NYC next week just to see what things looked like from a booking perspective.

This is a look at all Hyatt Hotels for Wednesday 11/18 in the NYC area. The greyed out hotels simply aren’t even taking reservations ( that includes the Park Hyatt New York ) – 7 hotels of the 17 Hyatt hotesl in Manahattan are greyed out. Remember the average rate of any hotel room in NYC last year was over $300 a night – compare that to the rates you’re seeing. I believe the average for NYC ( not just Hyatt ) is about $135 a night. Many of those greyed out hotels don’t list when they will be up and running, but the ones that do, are scheduling operations in January 2021.

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2 Comments

  • Dean November 15, 2020

    This is what happens when the herd gets spooked.
    No amount of logic or reason will get people back to traveling. Once they are scared, they are just… scared.

    I blame social media for 100% of this.
    Bad ideas, have never spread so quickly.

    And, everyone else suffers while wealthy people sit at home.
    Not traveling, not doing anything.
    Screw the poor! screw the working class! we don’t care about them as long as Uber Eats brings our food and Netflix is on.

    We’re witnessing the end of the world, led by the dumbest people online.

  • Christian November 15, 2020

    Yikes. Thanks for bringing this up. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that other travel bloggers aren’t covering this. If New York is in such dire shape, surely hotels in other cities are doing equally poorly. The only place I can think of that has received much attention is Las Vegas.

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