Atlanta: Luxury hotel building boom continues, which means bargains in short term

Atlanta: Luxury hotel building boom continues, which means bargains in short term
February 10, 2010
Hotel Check-In

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an interesting article today that examines the number of luxury hotels that have opened - and are still opening - in Atlanta lately, and what that means for consumers. This spring, a Loews hotel is slated to open in Atlanta's Midtown.

The story suggests that hotel industry has brought in more butlers, luxury sedan shopping shuttles and hot-stone spa treatments than possibly all of Bravo TV's Real Housewives combined could ever handle. (The stars of Bravo TV's Real Housewives of Atlanta are known as big fans of the W hotels in Atlanta's Buckhead and Midtown areas.)

But on a serious note...The AJC's story speaks to the number of luxury hotels that have opened across the USA in places where demand today may have decreased for the foreseeable future due to the economy and curbed spending.

In the past decade, metro Atlanta added more than 2,000 luxury hotel rooms, the article says. And that doesn't count the 414-room Loews hotel set to open this spring, years after it was originally conceived.

"Three years ago, it was a very different landscape," Loews spokeswoman Emily Goldfischer told the AJC. "Many people were building in Atlanta. At that point, it was very optimistic."

Before 2004, the AJC article says Atlanta's top-tier hotels were...

* A Four Seasons, the W Hotel Perimeter, the Grand Hyatt and two Ritz-Carltons (downtown and Buckhead)

Today, Atlanta has...

* A Rosewood (which recently went through a foreclosure auction), a St. Regis and a Palomar

And other hotels had been discussed, the AJC article says, including...

* Mandarin Oriental, a third Ritz-Carlton, a second InterContinental, a Peninsula and a Waldorf Astoria

Customers, meanwhile, are cashing in on the supply of new or nearly new luxury hotel rooms, the AJC says.

The Rosewood, for instance, offers a third night free on stays booked online through May, the story says. And the W downtown offers online bookers a rate of $259 for the first night - with a second and third night priced at the last two digits of their birth year (a visitor born in 1965 would pay $65), the article says.

As a result of the market, the AJC tells us that hotels are cutting costs. Loews, for instance, will run its restaurant in-house instead of using a celebrity chef, which was routine just a few years ago, the article says. A Pano Karatossos restaurant at the St. Regis has been put on hold, the AJC reports.

At the Loews, meanwhile, the AJC article says optimism still rules. The hotel is sold out for its first three days of operation, and new hotels usually win events such as charity balls, the article says.