by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:07 PM ET, Thu August 31, 2017
Houston's hotel market was struggling long before Hurricane Harvey came along, but the chaos and fallout from the natural disaster will likely spell even more trouble for the beleaguered industry.
An executive from STR, a data provider for the hotel industry, told Bloomberg this week that the long-term impact of Hurricane Harvey is likely to be negative.
"It's going to be very hard on Houston for the foreseeable future," said Carter Wilson, vice president of the consulting and analytics firm.
The challenges for Houston's hotel industry are tied to depressed oil prices. The fourth-largest city in the U.S., Houston is also the nation's energy capital. Occupancy and room rates in the city have been depressed for three years, according to Bloomberg.
For the first seven months of this year, occupancy averaged just 62.7 percent, making it the lowest of the top 25 U.S. markets, Bloomberg reported.
In addition, revenue per available room, which is an industry performance gauge, has declined 4.6 percent year to date. That's after falling 12.5 percent last year and 3.4 percent during 2015.
City hotels may be filled right now by the influx of emergency workers, insurance adjusters and others dealing with the hurricane's impact, but there also may be fewer available rooms as some properties suffered damage from the storm, according to Bloomberg.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Harvey's Aftermath Complicates Travel[/READMORE]
Many area hotels are also currently offering discounts to assist with the temporary housing emergency brought on by the storm.
Houston's Hotel Sorella, for instance, is accommodating almost 450 evacuees, who are renting rooms at deep discounts, according to MySanAntonio.com The hotel's general manager worried that it could take weeks for business to return to normal, based on how long it takes for the airport to reopen and the city to be cleaned up.
The storm "is costing us financially, but what I'm concerned for is the safety of our staff and guests at this point," he told MySanAntonio.com. "Financially, we'll rebound."
Other Houston hotels, such as the boutique La Colombe d'Or Hotel in Houston's Montrose neighborhood, closed temporarily because guests could not get there amid flooded roads.
The two largest hotel operators globally-Marriott International Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.-have both said that hotels in the affected area are waiving cancellation fees. Hilton's area properties have not suffered any significant physical damage and remain open.
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