You could be Phoenix. A reader shared with me a Wall Street Journal article on the cratering hotel market down there. (No link, sorry.) Occupany hit 58% in April, far worse than anything Las Vegas has seen. (J.P. Morgan forecasts 80% Strip occupancy in July.) Also, there are concerns about the addition of 1,900 rooms to a 56,000-room market. Hell, Aria is going to add almost twice that much inventory to the Strip all by itself.
In the past five months, W Scottsdale Hotel & Residences has been put into foreclosure, InterContinental Montelucia Hotel has been sued for default, Pointe South Mountain Resort missed its mortgage payments and Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa filed for bankruptcy. In one case, the amount of money in dispute is $82 million — pocket change compared to Las Vegas, where you can rack up billions in construction debt before anyone gets worried.
