While San Diego was considered the hottest hotel market in the country during the last couple of years, with many major properties changing hands, including the iconic Hotel del Coronado, the county is apparently losing that reputation to the northern part of the state.

In 2006, San Diego saw 33 transactions, an 8 percent decline from the year before, according to Alan Reay, whose Irvine-based hotel brokerage firm, Atlas Hospitality Group, publishes annual and semiannual reports on property starts and sales.

The total dollar volume declined 37 percent to $805 million, but that drop can be attributed to the fact that no 2006 sale matched the $745 million paid for the Del in 2005, Reay said. Nonetheless, the median price per room increased 6 percent to $98,718 in 2006. Throughout the state, 390 hotels sold for $5.14 billion, up 13 percent from the year before, and the median per room was $77,273, up 8 percent.

Northern California saw a 21 percent increase in sales, comparing 179 last year with 148 in 2005. San Francisco logged 27 transactions totaling $1.3 billion. In fact, San Francisco boasts the biggest single sale statewide — the 1,195-room Westin St. Francis, which went for $440 million.

The highlight of the report, Reay said, was the big jump in median price per hotel room in Northern California. San Francisco led the way with a 37 percent increase; Alameda County followed with an increase of 29 percent; Sacramento was up 28 percent; and Santa Clara County, up 21 percent.

Information from: www.sdbj.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 1:55 am and is filed under Hotel, Real Estate. Tags: Alameda County Alan Reay Atlas Hospitality Atlas Hospitality Group California Coronado hospitality group hotel broker hotel brokerage Hotel Del Hotel del Coronado Hotels Property Sacramento San Diego San Francisco Santa Clara County Westin . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.