BETTENDORF, Iowa — Bix 7 is back this year for its annual seven mile run down Brady street.
The local hotel chain Frontier Hospitality Group, which runs the Cambria Hotel near the TBK Bank Sports Complex, has no rooms to spare this weekend.
"We're going to sell out at all four of our hotels and I suspect a number of hotels throughout the Quad Cities will do the same," CEO of Frontier Hospitality Group, Dan Huber said. "So [we're] pretty excited about it. It has been a long year and a half and things are getting better."
Hotels were hit hard when event went completely virtual last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When you lose one of the bigger weekends of the year for hotel occupancy, that certainly hurts. But almost everything about last year was difficult for hoteliers," said Huber. "This year's area of improvement -- we're definitely seeing some great progress and looking forward to continuing to strengthen hotel occupancy."
According to Visit Quad Cities, the average hotel occupancy in the Quad Cities hovers, on average, in the mid-50 percentile throughout the year.
During the months of July and August, hotel occupancy moves to 65%. The company credits big events such as Bix 7 for the increase.
Huber hopes the traffic from Bix 7 is only the start of an increase in his hotel occupancy.
"Obviously, we have a ways to go but this is a really refreshing boost to the hotel economy in the Quad Cities."