Hotel Market Boom in Fargo-Moorhead

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Hotels are continuing to pop up all around the metro for what is expected to be the next booming market.

The supply is growing, but so is demand.

KVRR’s Brittany Ford has more.

There are a thousand more hotel rooms in the metro compared to last year.

Housing temporary trade workers and business travelers are two of the steady demands that keep hotel business flowing.

“Last few months with construction we’ve had a lot of crews come through; we had a group that just left they’ve been here for seven weeks,” said Melissa Hollatz GM at Country Inn & Suites.

Increased hotel supply is up but the overall occupancies are slightly down.

Occupancy rates are at 63 percent compared to last year’s 67 percent.

Raising the question…is the city being overbuilt?

“On the verge of that, but what often happens if things are going well people want to get into the market for various reasons. Sometimes you get a little over supply for a while, but if the market remains healthy it catches up,” says Charlie Johnson, CEO FM Vistors Bureau.

Johnson says he’d like to see more hotels with convention space to host meetings.

He says “medical tourism” will increase the number of future occupancies.

Medical tourism like the construction of the new Sanford Hospital is a major contribution of the building of more hotels in the area.

Jim Selle, General Manager at the Courtyard by Marriot, says the hospital traffic will affect the whole industry.

“When Sanford opens there will be an even bigger influx of outside travelers coming in for healthcare. So you know a lot of hotels have popped up and around that area, but really it’s going to affect the entire hotel community,” says Sele.

The Sanford Hospital is expected to open in 2017.

Brittany Ford KVRR News.

The overall number of hotels has increased by 40 percent in the last five years.