PORT TOWNSEND — Hotels are major revenue producers in Port Townsend and have managed to withstand ugly national trends in the industry, according to Joe Finnie, who has owned the Bishop Victorian and Swan hotels in Port Townsend for 15 years.
“We’re doing a hell of a lot better than the [rest of the] U.S.,” Finnie — who was joined by his wife and business partner, Cindy — told about 50 people at a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday.
There are 29 units between the Bishop and Swan hotels, Finnie said, with 161 hotel rooms and 175 motel units available in Jefferson County.
There are 49 bed-and-breakfast inns, 395 hostel accommodations and 55 cottages, he said.
The Finnies’ company, Rainshadow Properties, employs six full-time and up to 10 part-time staffers and falls in with hotels that do not serve food.
Manresa Castle is the only hotel in Port Townsend with a restaurant.
The occupancy rate among hotels in the county runs between 61 and 65 percent, Finnie said.
At 73, Finnie quipped, “I am not really worried that competition on the horizon is going to affect us.”
But the industry as a whole has reason for concern with the potential for future competition coming into the area, such as Bellevue-based Silver Cloud, which just purchased the Indian Point property adjacent to the Tides Inn motel on the waterfront adjacent to Water Street at East Sims Way.
Finnie described Silver Cloud as well-managed and extremely capital-intensive, and said the company could bring in up to 50 units.
Other potential competition could come if the historic Hastings Building downtown is developed with up to 50 hotel units, or if lodging is further developed by the Fort Worden Col-laborative at the state park.
If all three hotel developments were to take place, Finnie said, “that would have a significant impact on the well-being of the existing hotel industry.”
Other economic realities since 2009 — and looking ahead through 2013 — include the county’s changing demographics such as the aging population and new food and retail establishments, which could work in the lodging industry’s favor, he said.
Negative effects have come by way of the Hood Canal Bridge closure last spring and the three-year loss of two-ferry service between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island, he said.
While the bridge project nears completion, Port Town-send will see the first of two new 64-car ferries beginning in August with the ferry Chetzemoka being launched.
Finnie said that the area took five years to recover from the loss of lodging and retail customers after the 1979 closure of the Hood Canal Bridge.
Finnie said business in general is now, and will be in the future, greatly challenged by the city’s streetscape projects on Upper Sims Way and downtown.
“We were hammered down at the Swan Hotel,” during construction of the Northwest Maritime Center, Finnie said.
Finnie said that, while the Bishop’s clientele is mostly older, younger customers are increasing and come with more demands for new technology, including high-definition TVs, on-demand video, Bose clocks, iPod players and WebTV.
Finnie said customers want a better Web site that emphasizes the unique Port Townsend visitor experience and graphically describes the lodging experience.
Social networking to leverage the customer as salesperson and the use of quick-read codes to get instant Web response through cell phones are other areas of growing demand.
Collaborative marketing is the only answer in Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
“We cannot match the buying and sell power of chain hotels,” Finnie said, but city of Port Townsend and Chamber of Commerce marketing can help attract more lodging customers.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
