Travelers booking hotels again after pandemic lull. The latest is the new Cambria on the beach.

Few Fort Lauderdale residents can say they have their own neighborhood hotel — where visiting family and friends can stay just across the street, dine at a fine Italian restaurant and sip drinks atop a rooftop bar with views of the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.

But that’s now the case in the city’s north beach section just south of Oakland Park Boulevard at 2231 North Ocean Blvd., where the Cambria Hotel Fort Lauderdale Beach is attracting increasing numbers of once pandemic-bound summer visitors who are eager for a getaway.

“This hotel offers a nice alternative to the visitor who wants to be in a spot a little bit less hectic — but is still close to all of the action farther south,” Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Steve Glassman said in a phone interview Tuesday. “And it’s really upgraded the site from the hotel there previously.”

The Cambria is among a slew of hotels that have opened their doors in Broward and Palm Beach counties this year despite the continued presence of COVID-19. Glassman said its early success is somewhat of an anecdotal barometer for how shoreline hotels have fared as the pandemic, which decimated the region’s tourism industry in March 2020, has entered its second year.

Occupancies in recovery

“I’ve heard from small motels to rather larger resorts like the Marriott Harbor Beach that business has increased significantly over the last few months,” said Glassman, who himself is a hotel neighbor who lives slightly north of the property.

In the Fort Lauderdale beach market, monthly hotel occupancies are in a decided recovery, rising from 49.2% in January to 67.4% in February, settling in a range in the 70s through June, according to Visit Lauderdale, the tourism promotion arm for Broward County. Countywide, occupancies rose from 58.2% in January to 80.4% in March, settling in a range in the high 70s through June.

The five-story, 97-room Cambria opened its doors for the first time in January, but only now considers itself to be 100% operational with all rooms available and a full complement of staff. It staged a formal grand opening on Tuesday.

The hotel is co-owned by long-time Fort Lauderdale developer Jai Motwani and his wife, Jessica, through their Hotel Motel Inc.

“The pent-up demand was there .... the local market has accepted us very well,” he said.

In addition, a number of out-of-town visitors seeking to relocate to South Florida or to simply indulge in so-called “work-cations” have contributed to an uptick in business.

The hotel is the third Cambria hotel to open in South Florida. The others include the Cambria Hotel Fort Lauderdale Airport South & Cruise Port and the Cambria Hotel Miami Airport – Blue Lagoon. Cambria is an upscale chain chiefly designed for business travelers and high-income leisure guests. It is part of the Choice Hotels International chain based in Rockville, MD.

The Fort Lauderdale hotel offers a full-service restaurant, outdoor pool and rooftop bar and observation deck with ocean views. The exterior design reflects many of the buildings in the neighborhood, which includes the Dolphin Isle single-family home enclave to the west and the beachfront Auberge Beach Residences complex on the east side of A1A.

A major perk for Cambria guests: They can walk to the ocean.

The hotel also offers more than 2,400 square feet of meeting and event space in two ballrooms. The main eating, drinking and meeting venues are each named after the Motwani couple’s four children. Rates run from $200 and $250 a night to $375.

Jai Motwani said starting a hotel amid a pandemic was far from easy, with building materials, labor and even drapes in short supply.

“The day we opened we had 44 rooms where we didn’t have all of our drapery,” he said in an interview.

Rising costs from the arrival of inflation is posing a major challenge to owners, despite the return of travelers and increases in revenue, said Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands at Choice Hotels International.

“Think about the cost of goods, think about the cost of labor,” she said. “Everything they use in the hotel has also risen as inflation is starting to set in. We’re not free and clear.”

But over the last six months, a diversity of people has visited the hotel, including guests of residents from the Auberge across the street, as well as a mix of business and leisure travelers, Jai Motwani said.

And then, in a sign that the recovery is gaining a foothold, the first cruise line passengers from Port Everglades made their initial appearance at the hotel as a couple with their two children checked in.

Over the P.A. system, the general manager jubilantly announced their arrival, declaring their “breakfast is on us.”

They’ve promised to come back, Motwani said, at the end of their cruise.