September 14, 2005
Too many presidents, not enough suites
With more than 170 heads of state and government in New York this week for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, the city's hotels are finding there's not enough presidential suites to go around, the New York Times reports.
The Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel has only one presidential suite, the Waldorf Towers has 26 presidential suites, and alas, The Plaza is closed for renovations.
The Waldorf-Astoria, which employs a director of diplomatic relations, is this week host to President Bush, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chinese president, Hu Jintao. There, "half a dozen suites were repainted in colors intended to please this week's guests," and the Chinese president's suite will be filled with red roses rather than white because "red is a sign of happiness and white is a sign of death," according to the hotel's diplomatic director, Marina Jiang.
Brian Honan, director of marketing at the Four Seasons, explains the situation to the Times: He has known what to look forward to since last spring, when Country A sent someone to look at the presidential suite. The Four Seasons' presidential suites are on the 51st floor of the 52-story hotel. One faces north and has a view of Central Park. The other faces south. It looks out on the costume-party helmet of the Chrysler Building and the pencil-point mast of the Empire State Building, and it has a Steinway grand piano in the living room. And the royal suite? It is on a lower floor, but is larger, with three bedrooms, to one for each presidential suite. It also has a terrace.
Mr. Honan said Country A's representative looked at all three. "What he wanted was a three-bedroom presidential suite with view of Central Park and grand piano," Mr. Honan recalled.
He also notes the possibility of unscrewing the sign above the door that says "presidential suite" and placing it where needed.
But let's say you're not exactly a head of state. Does this mean anything to you? Well, yes, and it's not just about the gridlock these people create in Midtown.
The presidents, prime ministers, delegates and their staffs are filling up the hotels, making the most desired hotels in the city nearly full. "This is one of the strongest fall seasons that the city has seen in a long time," Cheryl Boyer, president of Lodging Investment Advisors, told the Times.
A new study of New York hotels from Smith Travel Research quoted in Business Travel News Online says the "worst is yet to come for travel buyers." During the first seven months of 2005, hotel occupancy in New York averaged 82.2 percent, a 3.9 percent increase from the same period in 2004. Daily room rates for that period were $191, an 11.7 percent increase over the prior year, according to the study. For the month of July, normally a slow month, New York hotels had 85.1 percent occupancy with a $187.38 average room rate, an increase of 13.5 percent over July 2004.
PricewaterhouseCoopers expects occupancy and rates to climb until 2009, when they'll reach a peak. Annual room rates are expected to climb 8 percent to 10 percent over the next few years.
As for the peak fall season, "(i)f you don't plan ahead, you're out of luck," hotel analyst John Fox of PKF Consulting told Business Travel News. "People are going to have to be prepared to pay big rates and may have to trade up or trade down in terms of hotel types."
Earlier: Average NYC hotel room rate hit $240 in May - study
The Plaza closes for 18-month renovation
1,500 new hotel rooms coming to NYC in 2006 - study
NYC's lost 3,300 hotel rooms to condo conversions
Average rate for New York hotel room rises to $212
September 14, 2005 08:17 AM in Hotelology
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