The Tulalip Tribes’ new hotel is not the only new inn planned for Snohomish County, as improving occupancy rates have encouraged interest in adding more rooms.
In Marysville, the developer that built south Everett’s Holiday Inn Express in 2004 is moving forward with a similar motel along 88th Street NE.
And developers have proposed at least one new hotel, tentatively a Hilton Garden Inn, for the area near Lynnwood’s convention center, according to the city of Lynnwood.
Last year, two hotels – the all-new Hilton Garden Inn at Paine Field and the revamped, rebranded Holiday Inn near downtown Everett – opened their doors locally. Numerous other inns have undergone renovations in the past year or two.
The new hotel projects follow a banner year for the county’s hospitality businesses. According to Smith Travel Research Inc., an average of 67.3 percent of the county’s rooms were occupied overnight last year, compared with 60.3 percent in 2004. That 11.6 percent year-to-year increase was the second-biggest improvement statewide.
“Because Snohomish County had so much growth in 2005, it doesn’t surprise me we’ve had interest in building new rooms,” said Amy Spain, executive director of the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau.
So far this year, occupancy rates have bounced up and down compared with 2005 rates. But the average charge per room has generally been up, Spain said.
Whenever new hotels add to the county’s inventory of rooms, occupancy rates can dip. But Spain said the new Tulalip hotel and the one proposed across the street from the Lynnwood Convention Center may attract previously untapped business from larger meeting and convention groups.
The Tulalip hotel will contain sizable meeting spaces and will be able to boast of its location next to the tribal casino, outlet mall and, in the future, other attractions.
“If they’re successful in marketing as a destination resort, then it will bring in brand-new business,” Spain said.
While the county’s hotel business is expanding, it’s premature to say it’s booming. For example, in the past year, Everett’s Topper Motel and the Quality Inn along 128th Street SE have closed.
The county’s biggest recent hospitality-building boom came in 1998-99, Spain said, when 12 new hotels and motels opened from Bothell to Arlington.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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