Fort Worth’s hotel revenues top pre-pandemic levels; recovery exceeds state’s rebound
After a catastrophic year for the hospitality industry, Fort Worth hotels are bouncing back.
In the third quarter of 2021, hotel revenues in Fort Worth-Arlington surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 6.7%, according to a report by Texas hotel data collector Source Strategies.
That’s slightly higher than the statewide rebound. In Texas, revenues were 5.9% higher than two years ago. Meanwhile, revenues in the Dallas area still lag behind third quarter 2019 levels by 8.1%.
Help from Fort Worth city government through the CARES Act gave the industry a leg up, said Bob Jameson, CEO of Visit Fort Worth.
“They have provided us at several points in time with additional funding to make up for what was not being generated,” he said. “That has helped us be able to promote the city as open for business.”
In the last two years, Fort Worth-Arlington has added a new 4,800 new hotel rooms.
That includes a new suite of boutique hotels, like entrepreneur Jonathan Morris’ Hotel Dryce, which opened in August near the Cultural District.
These unique new offerings satiate travelers’ desire for an experience, Jameson said.
Travelers are seeking “hotels with personality or a story,” he said. “So every one of these hotels that opens and is part of Fort Worth hotel inventory just enriches that diversity of experience.”
While Morris doesn’t have pre-pandemic history to compare to, he said, “We’ve been seeing pretty solid trends so far.”
With Dickies Arena a five-minute walk from Hotel Dryce, the hotel sees upticks in occupancy with arena events.
Local hotel occupancy levels, however, have been slightly slower to return to pre-pandemic robustness.
During the third quarter of 2019, occupancy reached 68.9% and fell to 44.7% a year later. In the third quarter of 2021, occupancy hit 62.5%.
Jameson pointed to business travel, which hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels and “is still ramping up.”
“I hope we see a little bit more of that in the months to come,” Morris said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
