“A year after the events of September 11, the New York hotel community is battling back, and hoteliers say they are optimistic but realistic about their businesses going forward,” the September 2002 issue of HOTELS magazine said.
The attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 forced the closure of several downtown hotels totaling about 1,500 rooms. Most reopened and a few new hotels celebrated grand openings, including the Ritz-Carlton New York in Battery Park, just blocks from ground zero. The hotel was viewed as a symbol of hope and recovery in lower Manhattan. But results in the months after the opening were mixed, according to a hotel executive. “As the economy continues to take body blows, it’s hard to find those business people who are traveling,” she said.
Occupancy rebounded to numbers seen in the days before September 11, but rates were slashed. What changed, according to Joseph Spinnato, then president of the Hotel Association of New York City, was predictability. “People are waiting longer and longer to make their travel plans,” he told HOTELS. “We no longer have that three- to six-week window.” The trend was fueled in part by heavy marketing plans that were cutting rates, and bigger players lowering requirements to get regular customers to elite tier levels.
Other hotels, like the W New York-Times Square, were exceeding expectations, hitting 100% occupancy a few months after opening. Times Square, a Starwood exec said, “was a hot micromarket within New York City.”
In that worrisome year after the tragedy, the threat of more terrorism and the economic downturn continued to hit the tourism market in the city, especially with international visitors.
“The Japanese market has come to a virtual standstill,” one executive said. “But I think the further away we get from 9/11 that business will come back. New York is resilient. I have a very positive outlook.”