Yet another item to keep an eye on when the business plan for the UCLA hotel/conference center is released: Occupancy Rate

The state capitol today may be occupied by the 99%.  But it is unlikely that the occupancy rate for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center will be that high.  Keep your eye on that variable when the business plan for the project is released.

As we noted yesterday and the day before, we still have not seen the business plan for the hotel/conference center, although the UCLA Faculty Association requested it long ago and although the next Regents meeting is coming up towards the end of March.  If the plan is not released soon, it won’t be eligible for consideration by the Regents at that meeting.

Empty rooms do not a successful hotel operation make.  So the occupancy rate assumed in the plan will be a critical variable, particularly since the dollar cost of a night in the hotel was lowered when the hotel/conference center was re-described last fall, relative to the old plan.  As yesterday’s blog post noted, UCLA insists that the hotel/conference center will not be available for commercial use so external demand that might fill rooms will not drive the occupancy rate.  There will have to be a sufficient stream of UCLA events and participants in those events who want to stay in the hotel to cover costs.

Susan Gallick, the executive director of the UCLA Faculty Association, offered to go to Murphy at a convenient time and pick up the business plan or whatever documents related to it that were available.  So far, the response from Murphy has not been positive: