By Moses Leos III

At a cost ranging from $15,000 to $20,000, Kyle officials hope a hotel study can aid the city in attracting attention from hoteliers in the future. 

Jerry Hendrix, Kyle chief of staff, said the goal of the study is to get the “best hotel that would be possible.” 

“We think our city and our market and location is at an area where we could get a flagship hotel or conference center hotel,” Hendrix said.

The study, which was commissioned to Stone Hospitality Group on May 19, will go in to “extensive detail into identifying the market,” according to assistant city manager James Earp. 

Some of the factors will be to evaluate market operations of a hotel in the city, investigate potential and existing demand on a local and regional scale, and determine recommendations that would help attract hotel clients. 

According to Hendrix, the city had never developed data in the past for hotel groups to review. 

While he said hotel groups vary on the information they are looking for, many use market information to determine where to develop. 

With a lack of timely information, Hendrix said the city brought in a party to analyze population and demographic information. 

Commissioning and paying for a study, according to Hendrix, suggests the city is “serious about having a bigger hotel presence.” 

“It shows that we are serious about having them here,” he said. 

The city will pay for its hotel study using funds from Kyle’s Hotel Occupancy Tax fund. 

According to Kyle Chamber Executive Director Julie Snyder, much of the need the chamber has heard is an increase in business meeting and conference center style options. 

She said having another hotel or conference center could be helpful for tourism. While she said the city isn’t running out of rooms with its two current hotels, La Quinta and Best Western Inn & Suites, having additional options is “good for the business and the community side.” 

She believes the addition of hotels can help draw traffic from events such as Formula 1 at Circuit of the Americas. 

“Having more hotels in Kyle would be a great feature to piggyback on those events,” Snyder said.  

Hendrix said additional hotels could increase the amount of HOT funds the city draws from hotels. He said the city’s two hotels are doing well, but are “maxed out” in how much the city draws in HOT funds. 

“By bringing in more hotels, we’ll add to those HOT funds, where we can fund more activities to bring more people into Kyle,” he said. “We think there’s a lot of reasons that a hotel is successful here in Kyle, not only locally, but regionally.” 

But where a hotel could go, and what type, would be determined by the study. 

According to Hendrix, there are several options for the city to contemplate that could be potential incubators for hotel development. The study could also further the city’s attempt to determine what makes Kyle a destination. 

“If I’m a destination type venue, I want people to stay as long as possible,” Hendrix said. “If you have hotels close to that venue, it creates the ability for people
to stay for more than
one day.”