New Cheyenne hotel offers extended stays, bolstering economy
Sep. 21—CHEYENNE — In recent years, extended-stay hotels have grown in popularity among globally recognized hotel brands. Over the past decade, these companies have expanded this profile by around 50%.
This hotel style is not new to Cheyenne, but recently expanded with the opening of Hilton's Home2 Suites Hotel, managed by Kinseth Hospitality. Today, they are hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially celebrate the new hotel's opening.
"Having quality extended stay properties in our community is important," Visit Cheyenne vice president Jim Walter told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Wednesday.
The building at 429 West Fox Farm Road, which cost an initial $19.5 million, brought construction and labor jobs to the community over the two-year construction period. It also continues to bring workers to Cheyenne, since many are its main tenants.
"For the overall economy, we've brought in quite a few temporary local jobs," said assistant general manager Michael Woodward.
While they don't know exactly how many workers found their way to Cheyenne as a result of their hotel, general manager Maribel Perez said that most of their guests stay at least two weeks. She speculates most of them are coming to work in the oil, service and construction industries.
Walter added that extended-stay properties get particularly busy during legislative sessions in Cheyenne, hosting lobbyists and association executives.
Hotel demand and occupancy continues to grow in the capital city, Walter said. There were 7.5% more rooms in town last month than in August 2022. There was also an increase of 13.7% in demand and a 6% increase in occupancy in the same time frame, according to Visit Cheyenne data.
Across the state, visitors spent $4.5 billion buying goods and services from businesses and generated an estimated $247 million in sales and use tax for local and state governments in 2022.
Although Walter expects a decrease in winter months, he said he is pleased to see this continual growth in the industry, and he hopes to see a strong finish to 2023.
On any given night in January or February, Cheyenne hotels still rent around 1,300 rooms, compared to the more than 2,400 that are available.
"Even though it does drop off, and we're only at 40% or 50% occupancy, it's still quite important, because that's still 1,300 rooms that are generating revenue for those hotels and taxes for the local community," Walter said.
In Laramie County, there is a 4% lodging tax that splits funds evenly between county and state government.
When the Home2 Suites by Hilton opened on July 6, it was already booked for around half of the 89 rooms on opening night.
"We're busy all the time," said Perez.
On Wednesday, they only had three available rooms, and Perez expected even those to be filled by the end of the day.
Perez said she hopes businesses will view the hotel as a place to consider for extended-stay employees.
The grand opening is from 4-6 p.m., and is open to the public.
Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.
