Hotels are full, but downturn still taking its toll | bizjournals.com
Though the rooms at The Fairmont Washington are booked solid for days around the inauguration, like most every other hotel in the nation, the situation in the back office has been considerably more grim since the Wall Street crisis went global. In October, the 415-room luxury hotel, on the city’s West End, failed to pay a $44.7 million note that came due. The owner, Mississauga, Ontario-based Westmont Hospitality Group, was given until April to come up with a new source of financing to pay off the loan, assumed in 2002 when it bought the hotel for $145.3 million. At the time, the per-room price of $350,000 was the highest ever paid for a D.C. hotel.
