The look of hotels, not the number is the dilemma in downtown OKC

Twenty years ago, the dilemma was finding someone to open a second place of lodging in the heart of the city. Today the wrangling is over the appropriateness of the design for the latest proposed hotel in Bricktown.

Instead of finding rooms with a view, we're talking about the view of the rooms.

The scarcity of downtown hotel rooms wasn't true of the city as a whole. Plenty of rooms were available along interstate highways. But the measure of a city, particularly its ability to host large conventions, centers on the center. Fortunately, downtown and Bricktown now offer a variety of accommodations, from boutique to luxury suites to places more characteristic of motels than hotels.

Citywide, the growth rate for hotel occupancy in the first six months of 2012 was the second highest in the country, trailing only Oahu, Hawaii, when compared with the first half of 2011. The Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) expects continued growth as MAPS 3 projects are completed. One of those projects is a convention center planned for a site next to Chesapeake Energy Arena, home court of the professional basketball team whose games have helped fill many hotel rooms.

CVB figures show that the number of hotels in Oklahoma City increased by 50 percent from 1993 to 2012. The number of rooms has increased by 48 percent, to 15,713. Revenue from room rentals and from the hotel-motel tax is up by nearly 300 percent from 1993 to 2012. In the fiscal year ended June 30, hotel occupancy was up 11.2 percent. Hotel-motel tax revenue rose by 12.7 percent in just one year.

“You don't see this significant of an increase in other cities around the country, especially as our country continues to fight off a recession,” said Mike Carrier, CVB's president.