Orange County�s hoteliers breathed a sign of relief as the completion of the Anaheim Convention Center expansion and other construction projects boosted both their occupancy and room rates during the past year.

Meanwhile, the county�s largest hotels posted a collective 6% gain in employment in the past year, according to the Business Journal�s list, which is ranked by number of rooms. Total employment at the 47 hotels in operation both years jumped to 14,271 from 13,273 last year. Comparing the total of the 50 hotels on this year�s list to the 50 on last year�s, employment rose 8%. 

A long-anticipated growth in room numbers started to materialize in the last year, too. The total room count at the largest 50 hotels grew 8% to 19,809 with the addition of three new hotels. Disney�s 750-room Grand Californian debuted at No. 4 this year, while Pacific Hospitality Group�s Crowne Plaza Resort�a 384-room hotel that opened in October�debuted at No. 19. New at No. 20 is the Anabella Hotel, a redevelopment that converted three older motels into a new 360-room lodging.

Overall, OC hotels saw average occupancy grow to 69% in the first quarter, up 5% from last year, and room rates grew 6% to $95.84, according to Henderson, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research. By comparison, the 29 hotels on the list that reported occupancy rates had an average of 74%--in line with the first-quarter figures from all Anaheim hotels. And the 39 hotels that reported starting nightly rates averaged $147. 

Bjorn Hanson, global industry leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers Hospitality Leisure Practice, recently predicted only a 1.9% growth in demand for lodging this year, with average daily rates growing by 3.8%. Those would be the slowest growth rates since 1993.

�Even with the U.S. economy�s performance, we believe the lodging industry will experience profit growth in 2001,� he said.

One way hoteliers are striving to maintain profitability is with energy surcharges - fees tacked on to hotel bills in recent months throughout the West and in some other markets, to offset spiraling costs for electricity and natural gas. Twenty-one of the 50 hotels reported having an energy surcharge, and most hoteliers maintain they have heard few objections from guests.
No. 1 Hilton Anaheim Director of Sales Edd Karlan said that the hotel is �requesting assistance� from groups with previously signed contracts to allow adding the fee and has received cooperation from about 40% of the groups approached.

But despite uncertainties in the marketplace, most local hoteliers remain upbeat. �We�re very optimistic about summer,� said Rod Schinnerer, general manager of the Disneyland Hotel.

At the Hilton Anaheim - the Southland�s largest hotel - Karlan said they, too, are happy with the group base for the summer. That base was recently bolstered by the reservation of �large room blocks� for two pharmaceutical shows that booked conventions at the Convention Center, he said.

But Mark Bolton, general manager of No. 37 Newport Beach Marriott Suites, said he has seen bookings drop. �It�s cooled down year-over-year,� he said.
For Bolton�s hotel, that cooling is the result of a drop in business travel - especially from Northern California, he said.

Occupancy rates, reported by 29 of the 50 hotels on the list, were 80% or better at six of them, with the No. 50 Embassy Suites Anaheim leading the way at 84%--a full 10 percentage points higher than the average performance of Anaheim hotels for the first quarter, according to visitor bureau data.

The lowest occupancy reported was 61% at the Anaheim Plaza across the street from Disneyland. That hotel, which sits on a 10-acre parcel of land coveted by the developers of the planned Pointe Anaheim project, faces an uncertain future. 

The overall employment growth came despite drops in staff at 18 of the hotels. Those losses were offset by new hires at other hotels and new, larger hotels coming on line that bumped smaller lodgings with fewer employees off the list. Sixteen hotels reported increases in workers, and 13 saw no change. 

Some of the bigger declines came at hotels in the Disneyland and Knott�s Berry Farm resorts, where some employees were shifted to other jobs within the operation. That kind of shift resulted in a 28% increase, to 449 staff members, at Disney�s Paradise Pier Hotel, which changed its name from Disney Pacific Hotel in October and is No. 7 on the list. Paradise Pier absorbed some of No.3 Disneyland Hotel�s staff when the latter lost a couple hundred rooms to make way for the Downtown Disney complex.

The largest employment growth, 49%, was at No. 24 Anaheim Ramada, but it, too, resulted more from a shift of workers than from hiring. Ramada general manager Jerry Callihan said the hotel had leased its restaurant to an outside operator, leading to a drop in hotel employees last year. That lease was allowed to lapse in 2000 and the restaurant employees are back on Ramada�s books.

Another hotel with a double-digit increase in employment was No. 16 Hyatt Regency Orange County (formerly Hyatt Alicante), which grew its staff 25%. The Hyatt is undergoing a $45 million expansion, with new guest rooms expected to be ready by July 1. At that point, the Hyatt will have 394 rooms, 225 suites and 34 business-class rooms, for a total of 654. That number would bump the Hyatt up to No. 5 on the list.

Tushar Patel, chairman of Costa Mesa-based Tarsadia Hotels, which owns the Hyatt, No. 2 Anaheim Marriott and other lodgings in Southern California, said the company is hoping that bookings will hold.

�We�re seeing some slowing,� he said, �(but) we�re optimistic the market will hold in Orange County.�

One other hotel had double-digit growth: No. 30 Embassy Suites OC Airport North bumped its staff by 15% to 140.

Besides Disneyland Hotel and No. 24 Radisson Resort at Knott�s Berry Farm, hotels with double-digit drops in employment were No. 39 Holiday Inn Anaheim at the Park, which dropped 26%; No. 37 Costa Mesa Marriott Suites with a 22% decline; No. 14 Sutton Place and No. 27 Anaheim Plaza Hotel and Suites, down 17% each; No. 48 Hotel Huntington Beach, down 14%; No. 41 Four Points by Sheraton�Fullerton, down 11%; and No. 45 Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, down 10%.

A spokeswoman at the Costa Mesa Marriott Suites said that hotel�s occupancy - though still at 82%--dropped, resulting in fewer workers needed. At the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, however, the decline was related to a major overhaul of the hotel, which will be completed this week.

Meanwhile, the addition of the three new hotels means the bar has been raised on the number of rooms needed to make the list. Last year�s No. 50, the Anaheim Residence Inn by Marriott, has 200 rooms. This year, the Embassy Suites Anaheim�s 222 rooms put it at No. 50. (The newcomers displaced Irvine�s Atrium Hotel and the Embassy Suites Buena Park, last year�s Nos. 48 and 49, as well as the Anaheim Residence Inn.)

But the Embassy Suites Anaheim will itself be displaced next year, along with several others, as hotels now under construction are completed. Scheduled to open this year are the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point with 400 rooms, a Holiday Inn in Anaheim with 264 rooms, an Embassy Suites in Garden Grove with 375 suites, a Marriott Suites in Garden Grove with 371 suites and the Doubletree Santa Ana with 251 rooms.

If they were open now, the St. Regis would rank No. 16 on this year�s list; the Embassy and Marriott Suites would rank Nos. 20 and 21 respectively; the Holiday Inn would debut at No. 36 and the Doubletree would tie with Four Points by Sheraton-Fullerton for No. 50.

Twelve of OC�s 34 cities have hotels among the largest 50�and that�s not likely to change in the near future. Anaheim continues to dominate the OC landscape, with 44.6% of the total rooms and 45.4% of the hotel employment. With the opening of the Grand Californian, the city now has seven of the largest 10 hotels; Irvine has two and Newport Beach has one.

In all, Anaheim has 17 of the 50 hotels on the list. The next-closest�Costa Mesa, Irvine and Newport Beach�have six each. Other cities represented include Fullerton with three, Buena Park, Dana Point, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Orange with two each, and Brea and Santa Ana with one each.

One other change is worth noting: this year�s list has a new format that includes the names of catering managers and convention managers as well as a section for business amenities, to better assist readers who book colleagues into local hotels or who need to schedule their own events.
 

Sandi Cain is copy editor and a staff reporter covering hospitality,tourism, travel and sports. Cain holds bachelor�s and master�s degrees in education from Kent State University in Ohio, where she majored in social studies. A former high school teacher, she has written for niche-market sports publications in the U.S., England and Australia and formerly worked in both the printing and high-tech industries. A Cleveland, Ohio native, Cain hasbeen a resident of Laguna Beach since the late �70s. She enjoys travel, gardening, reading and spoiling her three cats.