Apart for convention center dates, a family of four can stay at the downtown Marriott for $99, according to www.travelzoo.com. Assuming the hotel is paying the usual 15% commission, that amounts to less than $85 a room.
How is the operator of the Brunswick Hotel able to compete with that? How would a new hotel, without the Marriott tax exemption and cushy contract arrangements with the Convention Center, exist on $85 a night, net of commission?
Note how the ad ballyhoos features that only can be found in the suburbs.
A hotel that costs as much as the Marriott should be charging at least half again as much to be economically viable under conventional conditions. The steep discount is an indicator of a weak downtown market.
We aren’t blaming the Marriott Hotel for slashing its rates. We wish it well.
But we do hold the City of Lancaster leadership responsible for the plight of the downtown Brunswick Hotel since the city subsidized and built the Marriott in competition to the long struggling Brunswick.
Mayor Rick Gray and Planner Randy Patterson should stop bashing the owners of the Brunswick for circumstances largely beyond their control and get to work on real solutions to the Lancaster Square East situation. Apparently Gray and Patterson believe they have expertise; yet in eight years they haven’t moved the Lancaster Square East situation forward an inch.
A good place for them to start would be to seek the advice of experienced real estate developers such as our publisher. But ‘Czar’ Patterson doesn’t have time or the inclination for that.
Wow….what great fodder for an LNP “investigation’ of a ‘local story’. Unfortunately , this will never see the light of day by the monopoly LNP or WGAL. THANKS for sharing this with us. NewsLanc continue to be the one reliable source of impartial reporting for the greater good of Lancaster County.