Visit Frisco Executive Director Marla Roe said Frisco’s 21 hotels had averages of 67% occupancy and a $141 nightly rate during the first week of March. Six weeks later, a half dozen of those hotels were temporarily closed, while the remaining ones averaged 9% occupancy and a nightly rate of $83.
“There is a silver lining at the end of all of this—out of our 6 million visitors, about 73% of them are day trippers within a 75-mile radius,” she said during the April 21 Frisco City Council meeting. “We feel like that’s going to be really positive because the sentiment to travel right now that we’re seeing is that people aren’t going to get on a plane as quickly as they would take a short staycation.”
Jeff Smith, area managing director at the Omni Frisco Hotel, said the pandemic has created “unprecedented challenges” for the industry.
“I've been in the hotel business 37 years, and I could never have imagined to face this kind of challenge with essentially the entire industry at a standstill,” he said.
Smith said he expects the Omni’s summer business to be down as people scale back leisure travel in the coming months.
However, Hyatt Regency Frisco, a new hotel attached to Stonebriar Centre, is moving forward with plans to open June 1.
“We have been very pleased with the response from potential travelers, groups and future wedding parties as well as the local community,” General Manager Lance Stumpf said via email. “Frisco is an incredibly friendly and supportive city, and we look forward to welcoming guests in the near future.”
The 303-room hotel, located between Dillard's and Nordstrom, will also include 27,500 square feet of meeting space.
Stumpf said the hotel’s staff has adapted its opening plans and approach amid the pandemic and will follow procedures and protocols issued by health officials.
“We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of cleanliness in an effort to ensure our colleagues and guests enjoy a healthy, safe and comfortable environment,” Stumpf said.
At the Omni, Smith said it appears business will pick up in the fall, but it still has the potential to soften depending on how “COVID-19 manifests throughout the summer.”
Roe said many of the conventions booked through Visit Frisco for April through September have been canceled or postponed. However, she said there have been enough rescheduled for the fall or spring 2021 that local hotels with meeting spaces are “getting tight” for available dates in October, November, January and February.
“We're not going to be able to recapture all this business for 2020, but we still have some groups that are signing contracts for 2021 and beyond,” Roe said. “That’s a hopeful sign that we all feel like we're going to get back to business next year.”
