Sacramento\u2019s tourism officials, looking to secure the business and attention of conventioneers and site selectors for the country\u2019s largest sporting competitions, often face a challenge: Organizing enough hotel beds for everyone to lay their heads at night.<\/p>\n
It was a stumbling block in Sacramento\u2019s pitch, several years ago, to host the NBA All-Star Game. Compared to cities like Indianapolis and Austin, \u201cif you look at just the sheer inventory of what they have, as far as hotels in and near the downtown, we\u2019re very low,\u201d said Scott Ford, deputy director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.<\/p>\n
A view of the downtown skyline \u2014 and the Kimpton Sawyer hotel\u00a0\u2014 graces a tenth-floor king suite at The Exchange Sacramento, a boutique hotel part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, in 2021. According to Visit Sacramento, the city and unincorporated Sacramento County have just over 11,500 hotel rooms. XAVIER MASCARE\u00d1AS Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
The All-Star Game \u2014 which will be played Sunday in Inglewood \u2014 is one of hundreds of U.S. gatherings each year that call for more hotel beds than Sacramento can supply, sending thousands of attendees of religious, political, labor and industry meetings to other shores.<\/p>\n
Sacramento and unincorporated Sacramento County have just over 11,500 hotel rooms, said Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento, the convention and visitors\u2019 bureau. But organizers typically want to lodge their guests near events, ideally within walking distance, and the number of rooms in the central business district, where the city has its convention center and NBA arena, is just shy of 4,400.<\/p>\n
Subtracting motel rooms, which many event organizers exclude categorically, there are 3,125 hotel rooms between the Sacramento River and Alhambra Boulevard, which is too few for many events. The Brewers Association\u2019s annual expo and the American Gastroenterological Association\u2019s \u201cDigestive Disease Week\u201d \u2014 sited this year in Philadelphia and Chicago \u2014 need, for instance, 5,000 and 10,000 hotel rooms, respectively, on the most highly-attended days.<\/p>\n
Such business would stand to benefit the city, officials say, in sales and bed tax revenues and in visibility.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Sacramento has still hosted high-profile events in recent years, such as the Aftershock festival \u2014 which feeds hotels from Davis to Lincoln, and drew a record 164,000 people<\/a> last year \u2014 and the Terra Madre food festival, which packed around 160,000 people into the central city<\/a> in September. The city will host two rounds of women\u2019s NCAA March Madness next month \u2014 the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight \u2014 the highest rounds of the competition ever held in Sacramento.<\/p>\n But additional hotel capacity, local officials said, would open up new possibilities. It would allow the Terra Madre festival to grow, for instance. And it would give Sacramento a shot at hosting even larger sporting events.<\/p>\n \u201cThe further you get into tournaments or the larger the profile of the event goes, the more traveling fan base and media come in,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIt is a significant economic boost.\u201d<\/p>\n Nationally, experts said, high construction costs, interest rates and a pandemic have dampened hotel development. Still, Sacramento has several proposed projects in the works, including a five-star, luxury hotel steps from the Downtown Commons<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the meantime, local leaders have proven amenable to creativity. This year\u2019s AfterShock festival will introduce camping at Cal Expo. And Sacramento\u2019s past pitches to host the All-Star Game have contemplated docking cruise ships at the local port<\/a>, reserving up to 1,000 homes and apartments through Airbnb, and lodging some guests in the Napa Valley<\/a>, with dedicated freeway lanes to ferry them to and fro.<\/p>\n But downtown hotels hit capacity multiple times each year during major events, said one longtime hotelier.<\/p>\n \u201cSacramento is ready for the next hotel,\u201d said Jeroen Gerrese, the general manager of the Sheraton Grand at 12th and J Streets.<\/p>\n Rather than viewing prospective new players as competition, Gerrese said the additional capacity would allow for larger events, which would benefit existing hotels like his \u2014 a rising tide that lifts all boats.<\/p>\n \u201cI would welcome it,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish the hotel was built already.\u201d<\/p>\n Costs and competition<\/p>\n In the downtown area, hotel rooms were 70% occupied in 2025 \u2014 a level typically seen as an indicator that a market needs more hotel rooms, Testa said, though the rate is down from 77% in 2018.<\/p>\n The city may see an additional 95 beds as early as summer 2027, six blocks west of the Sheraton. Roger Hume, a local developer, submitted plans in December for a hotel at 7th and J Streets, in a former bank building.<\/p>\n Hotel Eleanor, Hume said, will be something that \u201cjust doesn\u2019t exist in the market, currently.\u201d It will have a grand ballroom, and the lobby will become a bar and restaurant with a nightly pianist. It will have a spa with a steam room, a sauna and a cold plunge. The former bank\u2019s largest remaining vault will become a private dining speakeasy which guests will enter in the alley through a \u201cbanged-up door that hasn\u2019t been painted in 40 years,\u201d and respond to specific prompts before the vault door opens.<\/p>\n \u201cYou haven\u2019t seen anything like it, I can assure you,\u201d Hume said.<\/p>\n Hume said he was encouraged by the success of his previous project, converting the former Eastern Star temple at 27th and K streets into the 128-room Hyatt House. Since it opened in early 2023, occupancy has been \u201ctremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I was so encouraged to build another one,\u201d said Hume.<\/p>\n Still, other projects haven\u2019t come to fruition as quickly.<\/p>\n Up until 2019, U.S. hotels were performing better each year, said Michael Stathokostopoulos, senior director of hospitality analytics for CoStar.<\/p>\n After the onset of the pandemic, as construction costs and interest rates rose, development became more expensive. The income from operating hotels often didn\u2019t justify the building costs. At the same time, business travel has been slow to recover, and leisure travelers \u2014 especially on the lower end of the income scale \u2014 have grown increasingly interested in short-term rentals, Stathokostopoulos said. A majority of people planning vacations now check both short-term rentals and hotels and compare costs.<\/p>\n Luxury hotels like Hume\u2019s proposed project have fared better, Stathokostopoulos said. They compete less with short-term rentals, and the clientele are less price-sensitive. But generally, many projects are lingering in the pre-construction phase as developers rally financing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of hotels that are getting built, and especially the bigger ones \u2014 the ones that really move the needle in terms of inventory \u2014 you saw fewer and fewer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hume said he was able to control project costs and schedules more effectively with the Hyatt House hotel, because his firm acted as the general contractor. And he credited city officials for championing the project.<\/p>\n But he acknowledged the challenging environment.<\/p>\n \u201cNot all projects work,\u201d Hume said. \u201cYou may have a vision for something, and it just doesn\u2019t pencil.\u201d<\/p>\n In Old Sacramento, officials plan to issue a request for proposals this year for a developer and operator for a boutique hotel with 140 to 170 beds<\/a> on a 1.5-acre parcel owned by California State Parks.<\/p>\n Once a developer is selected, the project may be completed within three to four years, said John Fraser, Capital District Superintendent for the agency.<\/p>\n The agency recently redid its cost estimates for the project, both because it had reached some conclusions about what the hotel would look like \u2014 and therefore what the materials would cost \u2014 and because costs and interest rates rose since the finances were first studied in 2019.<\/p>\n Where Sacramento’s hotel rooms areThis interactive map shows the locations of the 3,125 hotel rooms in Sacramento’s central business district, which stretches from the riverfront to Alhambra Boulevard. Each bubble is sized relative to the number of rooms at the 16 hotels, a number which ranges from 16 to 505. Touch or mouse over a bubble to see the hotel’s name, address and number of rooms. The NBA looks at a variety of criteria for All-Star Game sites, such as local infrastructure, fan support and world-class arenas. But generally the league aims for hotel capacity of 7,250 rooms, with five-star options.<\/p>\n For now, Sacramento remains \u201ca ways off\u201d from that benchmark, Testa said.<\/p>\n The league is evaluating bids for the 2028, 2029 and 2030 games, and will make selections later this year, according to an NBA spokesperson.<\/p>\n But, Testa added, the city has a good shot at hosting the women\u2019s Final Four, and more hotels will come to fruition as the economy improves.<\/p>\n The city has a half-dozen big projects expected in the coming years that will demand hotel space, like Sacramento Republic FC\u2019s planned stadium in the Railyards, said Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, whose district includes downtown and midtown. Not to mention, officials have spent the past year or so contemplating the region\u2019s odds<\/a> at leveraging the Athletics\u2019 temporary stint here into a permanent Major League Baseball presence<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city has worked to streamline permitting, said Leslie Fritzsche, Sacramento\u2019s economic investment manager. Though direct investment from the city is unlikely, given the budget environment<\/a>, staff consider other methods of investing the revenues that are generated by hotel projects themselves, like bed tax and property tax.<\/p>\n Plus, Fritzsche said, occupancy rates are high and daily per-room revenues are rising.<\/p>\n \u201cI think both of those factors show that we have a market from our hotels,\u201d Fritzsche said. \u201cIf some of the financing is able to soften a bit to make them occur.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s hotel tax collections have risen steadily over the past three years, to $39.8 million in the first 11 months of 2025, compared to $30.4 million in the same period in 2022, according to Visit Sacramento.<\/p>\n National news outlets and leisure travelers are taking notice of Sacramento, said Gerrese, the downtown Sheraton manager. Visit Sacramento has done a good job of maintaining local hotels\u2019 business from associations, while diversifying the city\u2019s draws.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come here and they think: \u2018It\u2019s the capital, it\u2019s a government city,\u2019 etc., etc. And it really isn\u2019t anymore,\u201d Gerrese said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s still there, of course\u2026 but there is this whole transition with farm-to-fork, with the outdoor events.\u201d<\/p>\n Associations and business groups, he continued, will always be the Sheraton\u2019s baseline. But the city is becoming more and more of a tourism destination.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why that other hotel \u2014 whatever it is and wherever the location might be \u2014 is needed,\u201d Gerrese said.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n The future Hotel Eleanor, developer Roger Hume\u2019s newest project, stands in June at 7th and J streets just steps from the Downtown Commons. It will occupy the Capital National Bank Building, which dates to 1915. HECTOR AMEZCUA Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
Developer Roger Hume stands inside the former Capital National Bank Building in downtown Sacramento in June. He plans to spend $30 million to convert it into a hotel. HECTOR AMEZCUA Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
Guests cross the historic lobby of the Hyatt House hotel in midtown Sacramento on Wednesday. The conversion of the Eastern Star temple, built as the meeting place of a Masonic women’s organization in the 1920s, added 148 rooms to the city’s hotel room inventory in 2023. NATHANIEL LEVINE nlevine@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
California State Parks\u2019 John Fraser stands in 2023 at the proposed site of a new hotel in Old Sacramento State Park. The building would be designed to blend in with other Gold Rush-era historic structures, he said. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
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Source: Visit Sacramento. Map: NATHANIEL LEVINE <\/a>Growing beyond government<\/p>\n The Kimpton Sawyer Hotel stands next to Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings, in downtown earlier this month. NATHANIEL LEVINE nlevine@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
The dining room at the Hyatt Centric Downtown Sacramento in 2021, the year the building reopened as a hotel. It first opened in 1911 as the upscale Hotel Clayton. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
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