If you’d like to know if the Obama administration’s spending policies have “rescued” the economy, as the president claims, just ask anyone in the coastal California hotel industry which for years has been one of the hottest vacation destinations in the country. From the LA Times comes the sobering reality, rather than political hype:
“It’s the worst I’ve seen it in at least 15 years,” said Blaise Bartell, vice president of operations for J.C. Resorts, which owns the 60-year-old, 165-room Surf & Sand Resort in Laguna Beach, the smallest of the high-end hotels in the area and the only one directly on the sand.
The Surf & Sand has increased its marketing budget drastically, cut prices and thrown in free breakfasts at midweek, and stopped imposing a multi-night stay requirement for weekend visitors to keep business going. But even with a 10% average reduction in room rates, patronage by leisure travelers is down 5% from last year. And guests are spending sharply less at the resort’s spa and restaurant.
The five hotels that make up the core of the high-end Orange County market were less than half full in June, with occupancy of about 46%, according to a Smith Travel Research analysis for The Times. In June 2008, hotels in the area were about 71% full, but that was before Pelican Hill opened, flooding the market with even more accommodations.
As is always the case with our dynamic economy, one man’s problem — in this case the hotel operator — is another man’s opportunity — in this case, the person who is still traveling and spending money. Great deals abound up and down the California coast.
Since I have an unemployed relative in Orange County, California, I can confirm that other sectors are struggling as well.
