Oil Show hotels in demand

If you’re looking for a hotel room during the Permian Basin International Oil Show, you should be able to find one that’s close, nice or cheap.

Just don’t expect to get all three of those in the same place.

A check of online hotel booking sites last week showed a few hotels available in Odessa during the Oct. 19-21 oil show. They ranged in price from an average of $43 a night for four nights at the Motel 6, 200 E. Interstate 20 Service Road to $349 a night at the Marriott TownePlace Suites, 4412 Tanglewood Lane.

"For the oil show, most of them are already full," said Linda Sweatt, Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau director. "There’s a few that have rooms available."

This year, the oil show has about a quarter more rooms available in Odessa than it did two years ago. Sweatt said Odessa now has around 2,700 hotel rooms, compared to 2,000 for the 2008 oil show.

Sweatt expects all five of the new hotels that have opened since the last oil show to be full.

That includes a 100-room Hilton Garden Inn at 5221 N. JBS Parkway that is in preparations to open. Mark Wyant, owner of Dallas-based Seabrook Lodging Corp., which owns the property, said it is scheduled to open Sept. 14, pending the result of inspections with the city of Odessa and Hilton.

"Our target is to be open as soon as possible," Wyant said. "Obviously, we want to be open for the oil show. We’ve got good, strong advance booking for it."

In Midland, some rooms are still available, though, like in Odessa, rooms at the newer hotels will cost you.

A night at the Days Inn Midland costs $50 a night during the oil show, but the La Quinta, located a couple blocks down West Wall Street, runs $179 a night. Meanwhile, the Sleep Inn & Suites and Residence Inn, recently opened hotels near the Scharbauer Sports Complex, have rooms costing $280 and $299 a night, respectively.

Like Odessa, Midland’s lodging options have expanded since the 2008 oil show. Christopher Havins, convention salesman for the Midland Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the Tall City has added between 350 and 375 new hotel rooms in the past two years.

He expects that to lessen some of the demand for rooms during the oil show.

"People were staying as far out as Monahans and Andrews and Stanton and Big Spring," Havins said. "I’m expecting that to ease, but I expect a high demand for the rooms in Odessa and Midland and probably in the surrounding cities."

The new hotels in Odessa and Midland have lessened demand for hotel rooms in farther-away area towns, said Andy Patel, general manager of the Best Western Monahans Inn & Suites.

"We hope to see some business, because the oil show is busier than usual," he said. "Right now, people are not calling looking for the rooms."

That’s not stopping some from trying to get top dollar. The new Comfort Inn in Monahans is asking $340 a night during the oil show, while a room at the America’s Best Value Inn there goes for $140.

Prices start to level out in Pecos, an hour west of Odessa. The Oak Tree Inn there is charging $63 for a room, while the Hampton Inn costs $84 a night.

While some of them come from within the area, around 50,000 people attend the oil show, organizers say. It has around 700 exhibitors.