July 6, 2006

By Lauren Heaton

Visiting Yellow Springs for business or pleasure? Can we book you a room? That depends on what season it is, how many nights you need, how many are in your party and whether or not you like to watch T.V. The supply and demand for overnight lodging in the village varies from day to day, but a group of local residents recently published a study meant to assess whether the availability of local accommodations meets the needs of all the village’s diverse visitors.

The Hospitality Feasibility Study, completed by the Wright State University Center for Urban and Public Affairs in April, found that based on data collected from businesses in Yellow Springs, the village “could potentially absorb an addition of 30 to 50 guest units and meeting facilities … for 40 to 60 persons.” The study further recommended that market conditions favored additional lodging space along the main route through town either by adding onto the Arthur Morgan House or the Springs Motel or by building an establishment with a national brand identity.

The study was initiated in spring 2005 by Yellow Springs Community Resources former member Fred Bartenstein and current president Carol Gasho. Both were involved with a discussion at the 2004 Yellow Springs Community Forum about how to improve the local economy. According to Bartenstein, many participants felt adding lodging space to the village would allow visitors to stay longer and spend more money and would also serve the needs of the current business community. Participants agreed it was a solution with the “biggest impact for the smallest investment,” he said.

“Our hope in doing the study was really that anyone who had a plan, whether it was adding to the bed and breakfast or building a new facility, could be one step further in their business planning by having some of the research already done,” Bartenstein said.

Community Resources raised $6,250 from business and individual donors last spring and sent a survey to every business in or near Yellow Springs. The results include survey data from 49 businesses and 11 personal interviews with local businesses.

According to the study, 19 of the businesses surveyed bring a total of 582 overnight visitors to the village each month, and “most of the time” visitors can find lodging in Yellow Springs. But four of the businesses, who bring in 370 visitors a month, reported that sometimes their visitors cannot find local lodging. Five of the businesses, who bring in 165 monthly visitors, only use lodging outside of the village.

The study also asked businesses about their need for meeting and conference space, and found that 15 businesses require space for 12 to 100 people several times each month for functions they cannot host in-house.

Eric Clark, who owns the Springs Motel, said that it would be a struggle for a third overnight accommodations facility in Yellow Springs to make a profit. The hospitality study failed to account for the seasonal visitors to the village, who support his business during the warmer months, force him to turn away customers in the summer months, and leave the motel from December through February at times completely vacant, he said.

Clark acknowledges that his motel has never appealed to the business clientele, who tend to have a negative perception of the “little roadside hotel,” he said. But during fair-weather months, leisure travellers, street fair visitors, and Antioch University visitors often fill the 12 rooms he offers at $45–$65 per night.

“There is probably a need for a 40-room hotel, but is there going to be enough money made in the summer to balance the excruciatingly slow traffic in the winter?” he asked. “During the peak season, three properties would do okay, in the shoulder season we would suck each other dry, and in the winter we could shut each other down,” Clark said, referring to a third lodging facility in addition to the Arthur Morgan House bed and breakfast.

Susanne Oldham, who runs the Morgan House, is in a similar business situation. Although she has had to turn away local business, “there are plenty of times when I have rooms going begging because there’s not that much demand,” she said. According to the study, the Springs Motel operates at an average 52.5 percent occupancy rate, and the Morgan House at an average 60 percent occupancy.

Running the Morgan House is a “reasonable business” in Yellow Springs because there’s not much competition and the health of Antioch University and other local businesses is good, Oldham said. “From my perspective, there is not a need for additional housing now, and we aren’t going to build a 250-room hotel in Yellow Springs just because we have times when we have 250-room needs,” she said.

If, however, the local business community grows, Antioch College and Antioch University McGregor both grow and the village continues to pursue a performing arts center, then, Oldham said, “it could well mean a good future for all and sundry. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen to this town.”

Bartenstein has heard of many suggested locations for a new hotel in the village, from the southern general business district to Young’s Dairy to reusing the Vernay site on Dayton Street, he said. But the only “live initiative” is part of the Antioch College Livermore Street Project, in which Spalt dormitory could possibly be turned into a hotel for both campus and community use, he said.

The three-story building along Livermore Street would have to be reconfigured, but Antioch College Executive Vice-President Rick Jurasek believed the space might be big enough to fill the immediate need of 30 to 50 guest units, he said in a recent interview.

“The college would be very pleased if we had more immediately available, as in close by, overnight accommodations for guests, including presenters, parents of students and job candidates. We do have a serious unmet need,” he said, adding that on a weekly basis the college has visitors who cannot find lodging in town.

The Antioch Company has also experienced difficulty finding available lodging in town for the visitors it brings for board meetings, Creative Memories consultant groups and other purposes, according to Anita Brown and Lee Hyland, both Antioch Company employees who arrange accommodations for some of the company’s visitors. They try the Morgan House first, Brown said, but often either there isn’t enough vacancy or the visitors themselves prefer to stay at the Holiday Inn across from Wright State.

Some of the comments in the hospitality study support the desire for more lodging in town, such as one respondent who stated, “Would like something other than a Bed and Breakfast or Springs Motel. Not necessarily a chain, but something more upscale.” Other respondents disagreed, saying that the current motel and B & B were adequate.

“I like small town atmosphere. Please don’t turn us into another Fairborn or Xenia,” one person said.

In order for the village to support a third lodging facility in town, Clark said, it would “require a strategic commitment from the industries we have left in town to say ‘we’ll always use your place, we won’t send anyone out of town.` But then there will always be people who prefer to stay at an Embassy Suites or the Hampton Inn.”

Copies of the hospitality study and a transportation study can be found at the Yellow Springs Library, at the Village offices or on the web at http://www.wright.edu/cupa/pdf/yshfs.pdf and http://www.wright.edu/cupa/pdf/ysm.pdf.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com