Airport Hotels
Much of the morning in the last BOCC meeting was devoted to a discussion of how to proceed with the concept of allowing for hotel development at the Marathon and Key West Airports.
Where to begin . . .
Airport hotels seem to me to make sense around busy hub airports, airports in populated communities with a lot of business travel, or airports remotely located where the nearest hotel is a half hour or more away. That’s just not the case here. In Marathon, there’s no significant commercial air service at all. In Key West, you could roll your suitcase a couple hundred yards in either direction and find a Sheraton or a Best Western. Where’s the need?
The beauty of a vacation in the Keys is staying in accommodations that take advantage of our unique cultural and natural environment, whether it’s staying in a waterfront resort with direct access to fishing, diving, beaching, or in an historic guesthouse in Old Town Key West. It’s hard to imagine a chain hotel adjacent to an airport providing this experience. Where’s the need?
While Keys lodging proprietors experience occupancy rates above the national average, about the only times the County is sold out is between Christmas and New Year’s, and FantasyFest. (I know – I am the co-owner of a guesthouse and former chair of the Lodging Association, and I see monthly occupancy and ADR reports Keys-wide.) Certainly, the current economic climate is not encouraging for hoteliers: occupancy rates are down, room rates are being lowered, staff is not being hired, profits are softer than even after 9/11. Major hotel redevelopment projects have been postponed. Where’s the need for more hotel rooms?
An RFP for hotels (amazing that one was even requested) at both airports produced only one on-time proposal for Marathon, and a second received after the deadline (which was accepted by the BOCC in the interest of having “competition”). Perhaps the reason hotel developers have not been chomping at the bit to build a hotel at the Marathon airport is because the developers don’t think it’s a real smart business move. Where’s the market demand?
In Key West, the three submitted proposals don’t quite seem to take into account the Keys’ height or density regulations – including a 30-story, 192-foot high structure that would dwarf La Concha. The economics just wouldn’t make sense unless there can be a hundred or so hotel rooms. Where’s the recognition of our regulations?
The arguments in support of an airport hotel include the assertion it could provide jobs. That’s not really a problem in the Keys where our unemployment rate is traditionally below 3% — especially in Key West. Another is that folks who are flying to Cuba (when it opens up) could stay there – though why they wouldn’t want to fly on a much bigger plane out of Miami, or why they couldn’t stay at an existing hotel, I don’t understand. If they’re flying their own plane, they can likely afford to stay at Tranquility Bay or Hawk’s Cay in Marathon, or any number of nearby hotels in Key West. And how many of those folks are there? Where’s the logic?
Despite all this, the Mayor would like to proceed with having staff spend time and money to determine how to address the challenges associated with building hotels at our airports. He and some of his colleagues believe it would produce tax revenue; apparently, they believe that raising revenues is the role of County government. It doesn’t matter that doing so would increase the strain on our infrastructure, wouldn’t really make business sense, would compete with existing long-term businesses, would be inconsistent with the character of the Keys, and would produce revenue for the airport fund that could only impact ad valorem taxes through accounting wizardry. Where’s the common sense?
