REHOBOTH BEACH – The Delaware beaches have another new hotel option after a Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham opened this month in the Rehoboth Beach Tanger Seaside Shopping Outlet Complex.
The 78-room hotel, located at 36619 Tanger Blvd., was developed by local hotel development and management firm Beacon Hospitality. The firm believes the hotel is well-positioned to become a year-round asset at Delaware’s beaches.
“We see ourselves as a little gem here,” said Beacon Chief Operating Officer Ernie Felici Jr., noting the location boasts proximity to outlet shopping, the Breakwater Trail bike trail spanning Rehoboth to Lewes, and the Schellville Christmastime attraction – all within a bike ride of the beach. “It kind of puts us in a good spot that not a lot of overnight locations can put people in.”
Beacon had hoped to open the Microtel in time to take advantage of the beaches’ 2022 holiday season, but supply chain issues delayed its opening until March.
Located less than a mile from the Route 1 exit to downtown Rehoboth Beach, the Microtel is the closest brand-name hotel to the destination city to lie outside its limits. It will compete with about eight other hotels within a 1-mile radius though.
Tourism at the Delaware beaches has steadily risen since the COVID pandemic though, and stays in coastal Delaware have now become a year-round occurrence. Through November 2022, the average occupancy in Sussex County hotels was around 60% and the average annual revenue per room rate was nearly $113 – nearly matching highs reached in 2021, according to Delaware Hotel & Lodging Association data.
The Microtel is the third of the brand for Beacon, which owns two others in Georgetown and Milford, as well as The Admiral on Baltimore hotel in Rehoboth Beach. The firm is also set to build the new Fassett House Inn & Spa in the Bayside Community in Fenwick Island – a project that will also look to draw visitors from the nearby Freeman Arts Pavilion music venue.
While the site is graded and ready to build, Beacon is still working with the county to secure a building permit, Felici said, noting that the building timeline will depend on when they can start building and how completion times with the tourism season. Beacon principal Chad Moore, whose family has owned and operated hotels in Rehoboth Beach for generations, aims to bring some of that energy to Fenwick Island.
“It takes the concept of The Bellmoor in Rehoboth [which the Moore family owned previously] and elevates it, making it a little more modern and bringing it into your amenities including a restaurant, wine lounge, bourbon and cigar lounge, and a spa,” Felici said. “We’re excited for it, not just for the Pavilion Stage, but the golf course and the wedding schedule that they have over at Signatures at Bayside.”
