Company at considered one of San Antonio’s swankiest resorts can now kayak, paddle board and float in a fabricated lagoon set amongst reside oaks and rolling hills.
The splashy amenity opened on the 33-year-old Hyatt Regency Hill Nation Resort and Villas in early March.
Three years within the making, the 2-acre Huge Spring Lagoon brings “a surprising seashore expertise to Central Texas, full with turquoise water,” to the lodge, in line with the current announcement.
It’s the most recent amongst high-end enhancements and quite a few new luxurious lodge openings throughout the town which can be occurring in a aggressive lodging panorama amid slowing development nationally.
Nationally, although journey rebounded after the pandemic, it has since slowed, in line with a hospitality report by the monetary consulting agency PwC, which additionally forecasts that the rising provide of lodge rooms may outpace a fragile demand.
Final yr, vacation spot cities like New Orleans, New York and Las Vegas skilled steep declines in customer numbers, reported actual property analytics agency CoStar.
In 2023, San Antonio hosted 35.6 million guests, and 39.2 million in 2024. A typical yr is round 38 million, principally home vacationers, with about 2 million guests coming in from Mexico and about 50,000 from Canada.
However over the last months of 2025 and into the brand new yr, each lodge occupancy and charges have been down. Demand for lodge rooms in December dropped barely, with occupancy reducing by 5% from October and nightly charges by about $12.
Then got here spring break, which painted a special image for the town’s customer market going into Easter and summer season, say tourism officers.
“Spring break was fairly sturdy for us,” mentioned Mario Bass, who returned to his hometown in 2024 as government vp and chief technique officer at Go to San Antonio and have become president and CEO in June 2025.
“In truth, we have been considered one of 5 in occupancy over our Texas [competitors] — Houston, Dallas, Fort Price, Austin,” Bass mentioned. “We stuffed up extra of our lodge rooms than these different cities.”
San Antonio’s income per accessible room, a generally used measure of efficiency within the business, additionally went up by 33% over the identical time final yr, he mentioned.
In information offered in early March by CoStar, nightly room bookings have been nicely up over final yr for March and thru the top of this month, aside from a number of days in the course of April when it dipped by 1% or much less.
Conferences and conventions and sports activities
Conferences and conventions convey significant enterprise for San Antonio’s total $23 billion hospitality business, particularly accommodations. The 100 conventions and conferences Go to San Antonio booked in 2024 resulted in over 387,000 room nights offered.
In fiscal yr 2025, there have been 88 occasions, together with the bankable NCAA Males’s Last 4, and over 518,000 nights offered. Final July, the Texas Excessive Faculty Soccer Coaches Affiliation introduced 18,000 folks to San Antonio.
“Within the conferences market, there’s so much to be optimistic about,” Bass mentioned.
And whereas lodge stays have been down within the metropolitan San Antonio space, there’s extra to the story, he mentioned.
“Inside that story, there’s one other subset, the central enterprise district, that continues to carry out very, very nicely,” Bass mentioned. He added that room nights related to the conference heart over the previous three years proceed to indicate development yearly, together with final yr regardless of financial uncertainty and the political setting.
“We’re a world economic system, and issues that occur on the international or on the federal stage can impression our business, perhaps extra so than different industries,” he mentioned.
However for fiscal yr 2026, Go to San Antonio has 97 occasions on the books with estimated room nights at 476,000.
That issues each to the town and to the nonprofit that serves because the gross sales and advertising and marketing arm of San Antonio. In fiscal yr 2025, lodge occupancy taxes contributed almost $28.4 million to the group’s funds, in line with a report for a council committee that met April 6.
‘Unmistakably San Antonio’
Bass attributed a number of the current upswing in tourism numbers to Go to SA’s efforts to market the town in ways in which at the moment are paying off.
“We’re fishing the place the fish are,” Bass mentioned of a method to deal with the Texas regional drive market.
Go to SA is directing a bigger share of its advertising and marketing {dollars} on that market, he mentioned, a change in course after chasing the post-pandemic worldwide market in 2023.
“Whereas the market was doing very well in 2023, we have now reallocated that funding to actually guarantee that we’re proudly owning our yard first,” Bass mentioned. “And that features not solely the advertising and marketing {dollars}, however equally as vital, messaging of why folks come to San Antonio yr after yr after yr.”
Go to SA is at present selling tourism with the promoting marketing campaign slogan, “Unmistakably San Antonio.”
Way of life and luxurious
Rick Slutter, managing director of accommodations for the newly opened Monarch Resort, mentioned tourism is undoubtedly robust within the metropolis. A lot in order that company are searching for one thing totally different of their lodge expertise.
“The quickest rising phase in accommodations nationally and within the metropolis is life-style and luxurious lodging,” Slutter mentioned. “We really feel there’s alternative for development in that market, that there’s alternatives to draw a brand new demographic of company or give them a brand new motive to return to San Antonio.”
Different accommodations are doing simply that — upping their recreation or constructing new — together with:
In September, the historic Gunter Resort, 311 N. St. Mary’s St., reopened following a $57 million renovation.
A month later, the brand new Kimpton Santo Resort opened in La Villita at 431 S. Alamo St.
Later this yr, the Pearl’s improvement arm Oxbow plans to open its new 151-room lodge at 1210 E. Elmira St., throughout from Resort Emma.
Presently present process renovations is the El Tropicano Resort, 110 Lexington Ave., which first opened in 1962.
IBC Financial institution filed plans final fall to show considered one of its downtown workplace buildings at 175 E. Houston St. right into a 300-key lodge.
Although San Antonio has all the time been a gradual tourism market, Bass mentioned the rise within the variety of lodge rooms “means builders perceive the long-term worth of our metropolis and vacation spot.”
And, “I’m positive the conversations relating to the brand new sports activities and leisure district play into these conversations for builders,” he mentioned.
Enterprise reporter Jasper Kenzo Sundeen contributed to this report.
