Chandler Inn seeks to expand

S. End inn looking for room
By Donna Goodison | Monday, November 2, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

The Chandler Inn in Boston’s South End is expanding.

Plans call for Chandler Suites - a 12-room budget lodging option targeting visitors spending more than a couple of nights in the city - to be built around the corner on Berkeley Street.

“It just would be a much more affordable option for people if they didn’t want to spend a fortune on a hotel,” co-owner Cliff Long said.

Long and his business partner purchased a brownstone and adjacent empty lot at 56 and 56a Berkeley St. for $1.4 million in May. They’re now seeking city approval to build a 2,600-square-foot addition and rezone the property for use as hotel.

Long hopes to outfit rooms with at least a microwave and small refrigerator to accommodate longer-term stays. The addition would have a drive-through entrance to a courtyard parking lot for guests.

“Hopefully we can start construction soon,” said Long, who plans to move his Long & Gordon real estate office from Tremont Street into the first floor.

Long acknowledges he’s expanding in a “terrible” hotel market. Revenue per available room, the key measurement of a hotel’s performance, has dropped about 19.2 percent, to $131.69, since the start of the year for Boston and Cambridge hotels - because they’ve been forced to cut rates.

“The hotel business has gotten a little bit rough, but it will come back,” Long said. “The minute things improve, tourism is going to pick up here.”

Business at the 56-room Chandler Inn is off 30 percent, Long said. The hotel has been undergoing renovations in the past few years; Long and his partner will have spent about $2 million by the time work is done.

“We just tried to bring it up a few notches,” Long said. “It was always a budget hotel, and we’re trying to bring it up to a budget boutique hotel.”
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