Three Atlanta hotels – including the 502-room, upscale Marriott Renaissance hotel on the edge of the city’s downtown business district – are slated to close this year amid a hotel glut that’s been driving down rates.  The closures come at a time when Atlanta hotels are struggling to fill beds and keep rates from sinking. Travelers today, in fact, are able to snap up luxury hotel rooms in some top-tier hotels such as the InterContinental, Grand Hyatt and W hotels for less than $100 a night.

The Wyndham Garden Hotel and the Baymont Inn & Suites, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that will close in the next two or so weeks. Georgia State University is said to be buying the buildings for use as dormitories.  It’s not totally clear on what will happen to the Renaissance building, a massive 25-story tower that includes two Marriott concierge floors. It’s possible that the building’s owners could decide to change to another hotel brand, but the paper says nothing has been announced.  At this point, the paper tells us that the Renaissance is laying off 142 workers in anticipation of a closure.

Marriott’s moving 75% of the laid-off staffers to other Marriott hotels, Marriott spokesman Jeff Flaherty tells the paper. It’s working with the building’s management to find jobs for the other employees. According to this TripAdvisor review, it appears that some employees have already moved on to other jobs.  The environment is so bad in Atlanta that we could see more case where a hotel owner decides that their property has outlived its life as a hotel.  ”More and more property owners are asking themselves the question, ‘Is operating this facility as a hotel really what produces the maximum economic return?’” Mark Woodworth, president of PKF Hospitality Research, tells the paper.   ED NOTE: IF  YOU ARE WONDERING WHAT THIRD HOTEL IS, USA TODAY IS COUNTING WYNDHAM PRODUCT AS TWO HOTELS... click here for full USA today report…