San Antonio, Texas hotel market

Flat at the top, moving underneath

San Antonio's hotels have reported almost exactly the same revenue for three straight years: $1.29B in 2023, $1.32B in 2024, $1.29B in 2025, and a trailing twelve months of $1.29B, down 0.6% on the raw sums. The growth rate shown above reads minus 2%, because it excludes about $20M of flagged single-month filing lumps spread across nine properties, none individually large enough to be a story on its own. One comparison in the current stretch needs an asterisk: April 2026 prints 7.4% below April 2025, but April 2025 had the men's Final Four at the Alamodome. Outside that base effect, 2026 is tracking level to slightly ahead, with January up 9.3%, March up 4.7% and May up 0.7%.

Resorts up, Riverwalk soft

The flat market is really two markets. The Hill Country resort corridor is the growth engine: La Cantera grew 23.7% to $39.6M, the Hyatt Regency Hill Country 7.3% to $39.3M, and Hotel Emma at the Pearl 9.3% to $23.4M. The JW Marriott Hill Country remains the single biggest earner at $85.3M, down 4.2% from an exceptional prior year.

Downtown tells the other story. Along the Riverwalk, the Hyatt Regency is down 7.1%, the Westin 6.4%, the Contessa 6.0%, the Omni La Mansion del Rio 5.7%, the Drury Plaza 4.9%, the Marriott Riverwalk 3.3%, and the St. Anthony 7.1%. The only downtown boxes that grew are the two anchored to the convention center: the Marriott Rivercenter, up 2.3%, and the Grand Hyatt, up 2.2%. Worth watching: the Menger and the Crockett, the two historic hotels beside the Alamo, began filing under new taxpayer numbers in August 2025, an ownership or operator change at two of the market's most storied properties; the Menger reported $15.7M in its first ten months under the new number.

The next cycle is funded

On November 4, 2025, Bexar County voters approved Propositions A and B, the funding framework for Project Marvel: a Spurs arena downtown estimated at $1.2B to $1.5B, a $700M to $900M expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, a planned convention hotel of at least $750M, and the conversion of the Wood federal courthouse into an events venue. The county's hotel venue tax rises from 1.75% to 2% and the rental-car tax extends to repay the bonds. For hotel owners the sequence matters: years of construction around HemisFair come first, and the demand payoff comes after.

Meanwhile supply keeps arriving at a measured pace: 450 hotels filed in the trailing year, registry capacity of 44,420 rooms is up 410 (about 0.9%), and 43 locations filed for the first time. The quieter shift is short-term rentals: $130.4M in the trailing year, a 9.2% share, with 2025 STR revenue up 24% over 2024, the fastest growth of any big Texas metro. The share climbed from 7.1% to 8.9% in a single year.

Sources: KSAT: what we know about Project Marvel · Spectrum News: voters approve Project Marvel funding · San Antonio Report: the venue taxes behind the arena

The buyer's read, and the data notes

San Antonio pays you to wait. The topline has been flat for three years and the Riverwalk core is genuinely soft, but the market now carries a funded, voter-approved set of catalysts with a construction clock attached, and the resort corridor proves the demand ceiling is well above the downtown average. The near-term read: resort-adjacent and Pearl-adjacent assets have the momentum; Riverwalk assets are being repriced by soft numbers just as the district's future was funded, which is exactly the setup a patient buyer looks for, provided the hold survives the construction years. Adjust any April comparison for the 2025 Final Four before trending it.

Data notes: no single large filing artifact distorts the current windows, but the market growth rate shown above excludes about $20M of smaller flagged months across nine properties, which is why it reads minus 2% against a raw minus 0.6%. The Menger and Crockett taxpayer changes suppress those two roster growth rates. All figures are self-reported state tax filings, unaudited, and restated when operators amend.

Sources: Virtual Builders Exchange: Props A and B pass, arena deal locked in