Hotel Demand Catching Up With Supply

PORTLAND-Only 202 hotel rooms have been added to the local market since September, reflecting a continued slowdown of supply additions that has helped the market rebound from thousands of new hotel rooms that arrived in the latter half of the 1990s, says hotel brokerage specialist Ed Dundon in his latest market report.

In his semi-annual market report and update, Dundon says recent surveys show the Westside hotel market that serves the high tech corridor is firming up and that despite rumors of its trouble, the airport market is reporting a slight increase in revenue per available room. As for the future, Dundon says prospects for a continuing rebound throughout Portland are “positive, subject to the economic uncertainties,” in part because “supply additions have been reduced to a trickle.”

Projects currently planned or under construction total about 1,200 rooms. The number is down from September of 2000, when well more than 1,500 rooms being planned or built. Two planned projects were abandoned during that period, says Dundon. There are currently 20,601 rooms in the Portland metro market quoting corporate single-room rates of $40 or more.