BY ROO MOODY
Measuring the impact
In their own words
Dollars at work
Following the rise in occupancy and RevPAR, a hotel performance metric that calculates the revenue per available room, the cost of hotel stays has declined since 2024. According to Todd Walker, director of feasibility and analytics at Source Strategies, nearly 1,500 rooms are under construction in the metro. He said these rooms will keep occupancy lower as there will be more rooms to fill the demand.
In 2024, Houston saw 25.1 million rooms booked, according to data from Houston First. Barfield said she isn’t worried about running out of visitors, even though Houston isn’t necessarily known as a tourist destination. “There’s just always going to be people visiting Houston, which is incredible as a business owner to know there’s a really strong base,” she said.
Last year’s record number of visitors also led to a 15% increase in hotel revenue and contributed to a rise in the funds Houston First Corp. gives to the arts and entertainment sectors of Houston. Heckman said the organization allocates nearly 20% of the hotel occupancy tax to the Houston Arts Alliance and predicts around $22 million will be reinvested into the arts next year. The remainder of the money will be used to market and promote Houston, he said. “We work very hard to grow the pie because when the [hotel occupancy tax] is growing, that means all of the rest of the industry is growing,” Heckman said. “That means there are more people who are in hotels, there are more people who are going to restaurants and using transportation companies, and the ripple effect of that through the economy is incredible.”
Hotel performance metrics
Main trip purposes Visiting friends/relatives
2023 2024
RevPAR
Occupancy percentage
48.3% 52.1%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
+10.9%
Special event
7.3% 8.8% 8.6% 6.4% 6.9% 8.3%
Touring
-3.4%
City trip
2023
2025
2023 Q4
2024 Q1
2024 Q2
2024 Q3
2024 Q4
2025 Q1
2025 Q2
2025 Q3
SOURCE: SOURCE STRATEGIES/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: LONGWOODS INTERNATIONAL/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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