As the luxury hotel market shows strong recovery in the post-recession years, Miami Beach is emerging as one of the top global destinations for hoteliers to either debut higher-end boutique brands or expand existing luxury badges.
Why Miami Beach? Analysts say the destination has three key factors over other top markets.
• Lenders are now more willing to loan financing to developers, who are scooping up prime real estate along Miami Beach’s pristine oceanfront space through distressed debts or acquisitions.
• Four years of record tourism figures, with a concentration of Latin and South American visitors, have also fueled the popularity of the South Florida destination. According to figures from the Greater Miami Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau 2013 annual report, 14.2 million people visited the area, up 2.2% over the previous year. And last year, Miami's hotel room rates jumped 8.1% to about $177 a night, the country's fourth-highest after New York, Oahu and San Francisco, while occupancy advanced 1.3 percentage points to about 78%, according to STR.
• Location. South Florida has become “the gateway to the Americas and Europe,” according to analyst Isabelle Rodriguez, a partner at Deloitte & Touche who has followed the market for years. “It’s about the strength of the brand and the demand for the product,” said William D. Talbert III, president/CEO of the Greater Miami Beach CVB. “The world luxury traveler wants to come here.”
The Miami Beach Edition Hotel, the Marriott-Ian Schrager lifestyle-branded property opening in the former Seville Hotel in November, is positioned as Marriott’s cooler, hipper brand. By tapping into the luxury traveler, the lifestyle hotel offers amenities like a nightclub, bowling alley and ice skating rink. Twenty-six condo-style residences also reside on the top two floors.
Hotels like the Nautilus South Beach and Thompson Miami Beach, both scheduled to open by year's end, will update hotels in the famed Art Deco district along Collins Avenue into more dynamic attraction points for customers and guest experiences with a combination of bright, vivid colors; contemporary designs; and amenities like pool bars, private gardens and poolside views of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Metropolitan by Como occupies the former Traymore Hotel. The boutique hotel features two restaurants and a rooftop spa. The Courtyard Cadillac Miami Beach/Oceanfront, which reopened at the site of the old Cadillac Hotel on Collins Avenue last year, features trendy, beach-chic amenities with vibrant colors. Both properties opened earlier this year.
1 Hotel & Homes South Beach is also scheduled to open later this year. Next year, the Faena Hotel Miami Beach is slated to open, as is Starwood Hotels & Resorts' trendy Aloft brand on South Beach.
Tourism leaders expect Miami’s luxury hotel market to remain strong for several years as travelers continue to gravitate toward a higher level of accommodation and service.