Hotel boom explodes in Austin

AUSTIN – The Austin area is in line for more than a dozen hotels in the next two to three years, potentially putting an end to a shortage of rooms. Combined, the hotels could make 4,000 or more additional rooms available.

The city currently has about 30,000 rooms, according to figures from the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, while nearby San Antonio, has an estimated 40,000 rooms.

Among the new hotel projects in the works are two 1,000-room convention hotels affiliated with high-end brands. Most of the hotels that are either under construction or have been proposed by developers are in downtown Austin.

Opening day at the JW Marriott Austin, a 1,012-room hotel going up at East Second St. and Congress Ave., will be early 2015. The other convention hotel is a 1,000-room Fairmont Austin at Red River St. and East Cesar Chavez St. That project is on track to be completed in 2016.

Downtown Austin’s average occupancy was 75.9 percent in 2012, and so far that figure has been at 76.2 percent this year. In downtown Austin, occupancy rates have been above 70 percent since at least 2007.

Read more at the Austin American-Statesman.