Bruce Constantineau
Sun
The 434-room Delta Pinnacle Hotel in downtown Vancouver no longer exists.
The West Hastings property switched hotel brands this week and became the Marriott Pinnacle — a move that’s expected to boost occupancy and push room rates higher by as much as 22 per cent, sales and marketing director Stephen Peters said Friday.
“This allows us to move up another notch [in the market],” he said in an interview. “It would have been more difficult to do that at Delta because we were already about as high as we could go [in that chain].”
The $75-million, strata-title hotel opened as a Delta product three and a half years ago but Peters said it needs to move upmarket so it can attract more international guests and charge higher room rates.
The 38 Delta hotels across Canada belong to the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts group. In the company’s annual report, Fairmont hotels are described as “luxury” properties while Delta properties are considered “first class.”
The average daily room rate for a Delta hotel last year was $85.23 — 33-per-cent lower than the average rate of $127.41 for a Fairmont hotel.
“Fairmont is a four-star brand and Delta is a three-star brand,” said Vancouver hotel industry consultant Angus Wilkinson. “The Pinnacle was built at a price that doesn’t justify the lower room rate a three-star brand attracts. Marriott is definitely a four-star brand and this move should bring the room rate up.”
Peters said the Pinnacle should have an occupancy rate of about 70 per cent this year, with room rates averaging anywhere from $145 to $150. Under the Marriott banner, he feels the hotel can boost occupancy to the 75-per-cent range and expects room rates to increase from 15 to 22 per cent.
Peters said U.S.-based Marriott International Inc. is one of the strongest hotel companies in the world, with more than 2,600 properties and 14 different hotel brands in 67 countries, along with one of the industry’s biggest central reservations systems.
“Delta’s strength is in Canada and it does a great job in the Canadian market,” he said. “But a brand of 35 to 40 hotels really can’t stand up against a brand of 2,600 and all the infrastructure that supports that.”
Peters said the Pinnacle should attract more international guests as a Marriott hotel from the U.S., Europe and Asia.
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