Hard times for Boston’s luxury hotels?
From Scott Van Voorhis: Forget about downtown Boston’s struggling luxury condo market.
If you really want something to worry about, take a look at the city’s new crop of super luxury hotels.
The W Boston recently opened amid one of the worst markets for deluxe hotels since the Great Depression.
The city’s new W, which prefers not to call itself luxury but rather a “lifestyle hotel,’’ plans on charging average room rates of $300 a night.
The Mandarin Oriental, which charges even higher rates, recently celebrated its first year in business.
However, exactly how much celebrating is going on among the owners of these flags that cater to the very rich is another question altogether.
While individual hotels don’t report occupancy rates and rents, the luxury class has been the hardest hit of any category in the business.
Revenue per room down 27 percent and daily rates off more than 13 percent, noted Thomas Engel, a Boston-based hotel industry consultant, in a recent interview.
“I would be in disbelief if that hotel was able to achieve its pro forma average daily rate,’’ Engel said of the new W. “The world has just so dramatically turned.’’