McAllen Hotel Occupancy Fares Better Than State Average

  • Pictured above are left to right Gloria Doyle, Sales Manager, McAllen Chamber of Commerce’s  Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Michael A. Cole, Director of Sales and Marketing, Renaissance Casa de Palmas 

    Hotel occupancy is down in McAllen, but just a little, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce reported recently.

    Revenue dropped by 3.7% from the second quarter last year, while occupancy only dropped by 1.7% over the same time period.

    McAllen fared much better statistically than Texas hotels as a whole, however, compared to the same quarter last year.

    Texas Room Revenue                               -16.3 % change                              

    McAllen Chamber of Commerce         -  3.7 % change

    Texas Room Occupancy                         -13.5% change

    McAllen Chamber of Commerce         -  1.7% change       

    The McAllen hotel which had the greatest increase in revenue and occupancy during the second quarter of 2010 was the Renaissance Casa de Palmas. It showed an 11.1% increase in revenue and a 5.5% increase in occupancy compared to the second quarter of last year.

     “We have worked very hard to position the hotel with travelers,” said Renaissance Casa de Palmas Director of Sales and Marketing Michael Cole. “With recent violence in Mexico and the general economic slump, we anticipated the downturn. So we have concentrated very heavily on group sales. And with the forty years of sales experience we have in our sales office and our partnership with the McAllen Chamber of Commerce’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, we’ve been successful.

    “Fortunately, the Casa de Palmas has had an excellent reputation for a long time. We do all we can to maintain the hotel’s good name,” he added.

    “McAllen’s overall hotel revenue and occupancy numbers are better than most cities,” said Gloria Doyle , McAllen Chamber of Commerce’s  Sales manager for the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. “It appears that we may be close to bottoming out. We are cautiously optimistic about the future.”

    She added that the influx of Mexican Nationals fleeing the violence in their own country may also have an effect on hotel occupancy. “We are following the numbers carefully,” she said.