City ponders hotelzilla as demand falls

If Kansas City, Missouri, leaders decide to subsidize a new, 1,000-room convention hotel, and the hotel falls short of expectations, no one can claim to be surprised.

Demand for hotel rooms in Kansas City is expected to fall 6.4 percent this year, according to new study. PKF Hospitality Research indicates that hoteliers’ revenues will fall 15.7 percent this year as lower demand drives down prices, the Kansas City Business Journal reported Wednesday.

To be sure, a scary economy will keep more travelers at home in 2009 than in prior years. But it’s not as if the hotel business was all cupcakes and candy canes before the stock market got its arm caught in a mulcher. St. Louis provides a bracing example.

In the 1990s, St. Louis expanded its convention center and built a new domed stadium. Hotel visits remained flat. A 1,000-room convention hotel opened in downtown St. Louis in 2003; in its first year, the hotel checked in fewer visitors who paid less money for their rooms than had been anticipated. In February, it was sold on the steps of a courthouse.