Portland Lodging Shows Signs of Life, but Living Large Might Be a Ways Off

Looking for a hotel getaway in July? As usual lately, Portland is on sale.

A room at the Heathman Hotel for the weekend of July 7-9 would cost you $161 a night, according to Hotels.com. A room at the Motel 6 in Seaside, meantime, is $240.

Why does a bargain motel in a kitschy town on the Oregon Coast cost 50% more than one of the nicest properties in Portland? Visitors are still afraid of downtown, says Skip Rotticci, a broker at Macadam Forbes who specializes in hotels. “Why would I spend a lot of money to go to a downtown location where crime is rampant?”

There are, however, signs that Portland hotels are beginning to rebound from the colossal crash caused by the pandemic, protests, riots and lingering blight. Occupancy in Portland hotels was 58.6% in the first five months of this year, up from 55% in 2022, 44.5% in 2021, and a dreadful 41.4% in 2020, according data firm STR.

Revenue per available room, a closely watched metric in the industry, appears to have bottomed, too, STR data show. After crashing to $41.92 in the first five months of 2021, “RevPAR,” as it’s known, was back up to $78.05 so far this year.

Portland’s boosters say they are optimistic. “Portland saw positive growth over the last year, and we see opportunity for, and anticipate growth again, this summer,” says Megan Conway, chief strategy officer at Travel Portland. “We have a strong convention calendar this year and anticipate a robust calendar of events and the summer season will result in growth over last summer.”

And the numbers are better than they look, Conway says. Downtown has 40% more hotel rooms than it did in 2018, she says, and 2019 was the peak in occupancy.

But figures that control for supply show the same dead-cat bounce that occupancy does. Hotels in central Portland rented 215,000 rooms in April 2019, 155,000 in April 2022, and 167,000 this year, says Jason Brandt, president of the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association.

“We’re seeing some noticeable improvements,” Brandt says, “but we have a long journey ahead.”

Brandt and Conway are both encouraged by a revival in convention business. The Association on Higher Education and Disability is coming in July with 1,500 delegates. The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science is bringing 4,000 in October, the same month the National Association of Minority Architects is coming with 1,200.

Bigger numbers are in the pipeline. Portland will see the largest convention in its history in June 2025, when the National Education Association will book an estimated 34,950 rooms, Conway says. In 2030, the NCAA Women’s Final Four is coming, along with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Another thing that can’t hurt: Kann, chef Gregory Gourdet’s gluten-free, dairy-free Haitian-inspired restaurant, won best new restaurant in the U.S. from the James Beard Foundation.

It might take more than dairy-free vegan foodies to fill the glut because more rooms are coming soon. Block 216, a new high-rise downtown, will have 251 Ritz-Carlton hotel rooms available in August.

“I don’t know who’s going to fill up those rooms,” Rotticci says.