Eureka Springs Hotels Face Dip in Revenue

Revenue generated by Eureka Springs’ 2,200 or so hotel rooms is down from an all time high in 2003. That year, the City Advertising and Promotion Commission (CAPC) recorded revenue of about $20.48 million.

In 2004, hotel revenue dipped 24.4 percent to $15.49 million. But in 2005, the numbers were back up a little to $19.34 million, or nearly a 25 percent gain year over year.

Eureka’s 2005 total hotel revenue amounts to 24.5 percent of the total revenue of all 62 hotels on the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s list of largest hotels. The list, which you can see here, includes hotels with more than $200,000 in annual revenue in Benton and Washington counties.

Sheila Hulsey, accounting coordinator for the CAPC, said all hotel revenue in Eureka Springs is up again so far this year. She said revenue was up about 11 percent as of late July.

Revenue figures include only lodging and not revenue generated by banquets, food sales, gift shops or spas, Hulsey said. The lowest year on record for the last decade was 1997 with $17.45 million in revenue.

Bill Ott, director of marketing and communications for the 120-year-old Crescent Hotel, said the property had “done better” each year since 1997, the year Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased it.

Ott couldn’t supply revenue numbers for the hotel, which has 72 rooms or the Roenigk’s other hotel, the Basin Park, which has 61 rooms.

But he said the owners recognize the need to reinvest in historic properties and continually update and maintain them, and that makes a difference when it comes to drawing repeat business.

“We work hard at advertising and marketing and selling our property,” Ott said.

Melissa Evans, director of sales for the Crescent, said the properties have had fewer events this year than usual, but she wasn’t sure why. The wedding business, however, is “phenomenal,” she said.

Recently, the town took a small hit to its overall hotel business. On July 18, the All Seasons Inn, a three-story building, and the Daffodil Cottage, a two-story building, at adjacent addresses on Spring Street, caught fire.

Both businesses are bed and breakfast operations owned by Pat Fitzsimmons.

She said 10 rooms were destroyed in the fire, but she still has four rooms at the Briarwood Lodge. She has operated the businesses for six years.

“We had a tremendous amount of repeat and wedding business,” she said.

The two B&Bs are already being renovated, she said. She’s hoping that her contractor will be able to get the structures fixed within six months.

The fire is under investigation, Fitzsimmons said, but she and her staff have been cleared of any wrongdoing. The Eureka Springs Fire Department has not made a ruling on the cause of the fire.