A report from the DC auditor shows that early returns on the $520M Marriott Marquis convention center hotel look promising.
The hotel opened downtown last year and seems to be having its intended impact on convention center bookings and by extension, the number of hotel rooms booked in advance. Looking ahead to 2017, over 528,000 rooms have been booked in advance, up from 422,000 in 2016 and 401,000 this year, the Washington Post reports. The DC government has invested more than $1B over the past 15 years into growing its convention center business, including $206M of the cost for the Marriott Marquis.
This is the latest positive sign for the DC hotel market, which is undergoing a renaissance. There are over 60 hotels in the pipeline, and the market is outpacing the average of almost every metric over the past 25 years. [WaPo]
