46 new hotels to open in NYC this year

There are close to 100 new hotels slated to open in major U.S. cities this year and 46 of them will be located in New York City, according to Smith Travel Research. The additions to the market — including five from Marriott under the Courtyard and Fairfield Inn brands and six from Starwood under the Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Aloft and Element brands — are unlikely to help the existing nightly glut of unoccupied hotel rooms in many regions, but their seemingly poor timing may be mere coincidence, said Mark Lomanno, Smith Travel Research’s president.
A new hotel can take two to four years to plan and one to four years to construct, so most developers for this year’s hotels were taking their chances several years ago, when the economic outlook was much rosier, Lomanno said. Last week, Hyatt opened a 253-room Andaz hotel at 75 Wall Street. The company plans to Open Another Andaz On Fifth Avenue And 41st Street in June. Developers’ misfortune will probably benefit travelers by driving prices down and providing more choices, but only for a few years, travel experts said. Lomanno explained that while this year will be a big one for new hotels, there are few properties scheduled to come online between 2011 and 2013.

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