San Antonio Business Journal: Too many rooms at the inn? SA hotels pay the price

The San Antonio Business Journal took a look at the state of the San Antonio hospitality sector following the release of Source Strategies’ Second Quarter publications – the Texas Hotel Performance Factbook and the Hotel Brand Report. In the article, Too many rooms at the inn? SA hotels pay the price, Journalist Scott Bailey observed the weak lodging demand contrasted with the opening of new hotels. But the article’s secondary headline brings in a little hope: “Industry stakeholders are banking on stronger demand to finish out the year.”

Roughly 40% of San Antonio hotel rooms sat empty during a key stretch of 2026.

Yet investors and developers continue to add to the inventory, building as if the demand for rooms was outpacing supply while the revenue hotels are generating per room has shrunk.

That’s when the paper hits readers with the statistics provided by Source Strategies:

Metro San Antonio hotels generated nearly 2% less revenue in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the same three-month period in 2025, when revenue for the year was down more than 3% from the prior year.

Occupancy in San Antonio was at 59.6% in Q2 2026 — similar to the 2025 figure for the same period.

“Overall, it was not a great quarter for the San Antonio area,” Source Strategies’ Paul Vaughn told me.

Bailey looks for the positives when possible:

There were some year-over-year Q2 gains. The number of room nights sold increased by 1.6% in the second quarter of this year. However, revenue generated per available room was down nearly 3% and overall revenue for the quarter decreased by roughly 2%.

“San Antonio’s air travel and business demand were down in the first half of 2026. There were also less group and leisure visits due to economic uncertainty,” Vaughn said.

I reported in June that the industry was optimistic that destinations like San Antonio could benefit from increased drive-market business this summer.

“That, along with international travel from Mexico and Canada, has been the bread and butter of this destination,” Visit San Antonio President and CEO Mario Bass said, noting that the short-term rental sector has captured some of that business.

Read the full article, Too many rooms at the inn? SA hotels pay the price, on the San Antonio Business Journal website.