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Kenton County, KY — Hotels Saturation

How many hotels exist per person present — residents plus daytime workers — by ZIP code, compared with the U.S. average. Establishment data: Census ZBP 2023. Population: ACS 2024 5-year. 9 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Hotels · Motels · Motor inns. Counted together because official statistics use one 721110 code.

Measured density: Range spans bands — 0.75× the U.S. rate (between 0.75× and 1.10× once withheld ZIP cells are counted)

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 6 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 5 of them with residents. Each could hold 0, 1, or 2 businesses: counting them all as 0 gives the low end, counting them all as 2 gives the high end — the data cannot say where the truth sits. The density range uses only the populated cells, since ZIPs without residents are excluded from per-person rates. How ranges work

Range spans the U.S. rate   Kenton County hotels — 75–110% of the U.S. rate

21 hotels are counted in Kenton County — 1.0 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 75% of the U.S. rate of 1.4.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has fallen 10% between 2015 and 2023 (20 → 18). That set is smaller than today's county total. 2020–2021 were pandemic-distorted, and Census rounds counts, so small moves are within noise.

Measured supply density is highest in 41011 (Covington), 41018 (Erlanger), 41017 (Ft Mitchell) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 41017 (Ft Mitchell), 41018 (Erlanger), 41011 (Covington).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 21 establishments, including locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA — so it can run slightly above the sum of the ZIP rows on this page. It is annual, so it lags more than QCEW.

Measured density: Kenton County sits at 75% of the U.S. rate for hotels. 5 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 75% and 110% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 41011 and 41018; the lowest measured density is in 41017 and 41018.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing hotels and the people present, not foot traffic, income, rent, or whether locals want more. Treat low density as a question to check, not an answer.

Hotels
21–33
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (6 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
1.0
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.4
per 10,000 present
County index
0.75×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
21
2023 — $23M annual payroll
Residents
166,567
8 ZIPs with data
Workers
73,908
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
174,862
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+3.3%
+5,586 people
Net migration 2024
+1,876
international +1,208, domestic +668
Jobs located here
69,992
LODES 2022, +10.7% since 2019

Kenton County had an estimated 174,862 residents on July 1, 2024 — 3.3% more than in 2020 (+5,586). In the latest year it gained 2,614 people: births minus deaths +735, international migration +1,208, domestic migration +668. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

69,992 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+10.7% since 2019), and 85,192 employed residents lived there (−0.2% since 2019). LODES counts wage and salary jobs covered by unemployment insurance plus federal jobs; it excludes the self-employed and military, and counts jobs rather than unique people. 2019→2022 spans the pandemic, so read it as one change, not a trend.

Population and migration say whether the customer base is growing. They do not say whether people want another business of this type. Definitions and limits →  ·  Full county detail →

ZIP gaining residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
41051 Independence
+7.7%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change

No ZIP had a statistically significant decrease.

ACS 5-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2020–2024. Only ZIPs with at least 2,000 residents in both windows and a change larger than the survey margin of error (90%) are listed — small ZIPs move a lot on paper without a real signal.

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes hotels only combined with other traveler accommodation (NAICS 7211), so a hotels-and-motels-only nonemployer count is not published.

Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (NAICS 2022). We do not approximate this figure.

Saturation map

Each ZIP area is shaded by its density of this business type per person present (residents + workers) vs. the U.S. average. Click any ZIP to zoom to its boundary, see its numbers, and switch to aerial imagery. Individual mapped shops appear as dots at street level — Show locations zooms you in to them (scroll or double-click to zoom).

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size) Mapped shop (OpenStreetMap, street level)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more hotels in that ZIP. They are aggregated, not individual shops. Turquoise dots are individual locations mapped in OpenStreetMap, shown only at street level; they are crowd-sourced and indicative, may be incomplete, and do not equal the official counts. Only the official ZIP totals feed the saturation index.

Market trend — down 10% since 2015

Number of hotels in Kenton County across 2015–2023, on a consistent set of ZIP codes present in every year — so changes are real, not ZIP-boundary artifacts. 2015/2018 are pre-pandemic baselines; 2020/2021 are COVID-distorted.

20
2015
22
2018
19
2020
20
2021
19
2022
18
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
41011 Covington
200%
41018 Erlanger
158%
41017 Ft Mitchell
42%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
41017 Ft Mitchell
42%
41018 Erlanger
158%
41011 Covington
200%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few hotels may simply lack foot traffic, retail space, or demand. We rank only residential and mixed ZIPs here; employment hubs and visitor destinations are listed separately below. ZIPs where Census did not publish a count (0–2 businesses) are not ranked: they may be the least served of all, but the data cannot tell 0 from 1 or 2. Verify those locally.

All ZIP codes

Click a column header to sort. Index = hotels per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersHotels Per 10kIndexStatus
41011Covington 26,98111,282 9 2.8 200% High density
41018Erlanger 28,94024,503 9 2.2 158% High density
41017Ft Mitchell 40,71922,383 3 0.6 42% Far below average
41012Covington —151 0–2 — — Not published
41014Covington 7,392590 0–2 — — Not published
41015Latonia 20,8238,587 0–2 — — Not published
41016Covington 5,795466 0–2 — — Not published
41051Independence 33,0545,994 0–2 — — Not published
41063Morning View 2,863103 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Erlanger

The numbers above tell you how the market looks. To find a specific storefront, these marketplaces list available retail space for lease.

LoopNet
Largest commercial marketplace
Browse Erlanger retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Erlanger retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Erlanger retail space →

Open vacancy data (actual empty units) is only published by some cities; where it exists we show it directly. Listings above are third-party.

Census withholds some ZIP-by-industry cells to protect small businesses. 0–2 means the cell was not published (Census publishes industry counts only at 3+ per ZIP), so the ZIP is left unranked rather than counted as zero. ~ means the count is estimated from the broader industry group and can be off by a business or two.

Follow Kenton County and hotels

When a data vintage changes or a section of this report is revised, we post it to a public update feed. No email address, no account, no tracking — and nothing is sent unless something actually changed.

Subscribe to updates (RSS) How these numbers are built →

Methodology & sources

Establishments. U.S. Census ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP 2023), NAICS 721110 — hotels (except casino hotels) and motels. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. This industry has no clean QCEW series, so the freshest county signal is Census County Business Patterns 2023: 21 establishments and $23M in annual payroll county-wide. This count includes locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA, so it can be slightly higher than the sum of the ZIP rows. CBP is annual and slower than QCEW. It cannot be broken down by ZIP.

Population. U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 5-year ZCTA population (table B01003). Workers are the ZIP's total employment from the same 2023 ZBP file.

Demand ("people present"). Demand comes from residents and daytime workers: residents + 0.5 × workers. This is the single documented assumption in the model and can be tuned.

Index. index = (ZIP establishments ÷ ZIP demand × 10,000) ÷ the U.S. average for this industry (1.38 per 10,000 present). It is a supply-side density measure; it does not capture income, rent, tourism, or whether locals actually want more.

Read the full methodology →  ·  Data sources & vintages →

BizGapMap — free, no-login small-business saturation reports for major U.S. counties. Built entirely from public U.S. Census, BLS, and IRS data (ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year, PEP 2024, LODES, QCEW, IRS SOI). No forecasts, no revenue guesses — withheld cells are marked, and the few derived counts are labelled as estimates.