Myrtle Beach area hotel rooms full for Fourth of July

Hotels across the Grand Strand will fill up for the Fourth of July weekend as industry leaders hail a strong summer coming out of the recession.

Hotels and condohotels will be "virtually full" for the holiday weekend, said Taylor Damonte, director of Coastal Carolina University's Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism.

Although hotels also filled last July Fourth weekend, high occupancy this year will jack up room prices, Damonte said.

Midweek rates surpassed last year's level during the week of June 20 for the first time since April, according to Damonte's most recent data released Thursday. Weekend rates have been regularly topping last year's prices in recent months.

The holiday should lead into a strong month overall, but the market shows some signs of softening in August, Damonte said.

In hotels, amusement parks and restaurants, all signs point to a strong season and recovery from the recession, industry leaders say.

"If the storms stay away and we don't suffer any negative media hype from the Gulf oil spill, the summer season is shaping up to be a very solid season," said Brad Dean, CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. "...People are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of recovery."

July

Hotels should continue to fill up during the weekends throughout July, Damonte said.

Weeklong vacation rental properties will be 93 percent full starting this weekend and running through next week, Damonte estimates.

Hotels generally trend higher than vacation rentals on weekends and lower during the week, so expect vacancies to vanish on the weekends, he said.

The vacation rental market will run at about 15 percent higher occupancy compared to the same time last year, Damonte predicts.

Tourists should also expect to pay higher summer prices as occupancy rises, he said.

Kingston Plantation, a resort in Myrtle Beach, reflects Damonte's predictions, running full occupancy with July rates up about 9 percent, general manager Bob Barenberg said.

"We are packed, and business for this weekend looks terrific, and honestly, business for the rest of the summer looks terrific," Barenberg said. "Great demand for second half of the month and July is just booked; it's just solid everywhere."

Barenberg attributes some of the upswing to reservations from those who might have gone to the Gulf Coast if not for the oil spill, he said.

More reservations than usual have come from Gulf states like Mississippi and Alabama, he said.

The beginning of summer

Occupancy at Crown Reef Resort and Tropical Seas Oceanfront Hotel stayed flat in May before giving way to growth in June, said Woody Crosby, former president and chief executive of Jordan Properties who retired Wednesday. A strong summer will hopefully make up for losses in the spring, he said.

"We had a bad spring. I think just people weren't ready to spend money yet," he said.

Even the more than 15 percent rise in business so far this year won't make up for lost revenue in the spring, said Mayur Jeram, owner of a Quality Inn on Ocean Boulevard and a Super 8 near The Market Common.

Jeram's business suffered from fewer bikers in May, but more so from the depressed economy overall, he said.

The rise in occupancy has helped his daily rate, Jeram said.

"We're now playing the daily rate game instead of the occupancy game," he said.

Attractions are benefiting from rising occupancy, said Mark Lazarus, owner of Wild Water & Wheels and business partner in the Ocean Drive Pavilion & Amusement park.

Revenue in June has been up for the water park in Surfside Beach, Lazarus said.

Lazarus is confident that July will be a strong month since a rise in hotel occupancy generally indicates more traffic at the attractions, he said.

So far, that's held true for the holiday weekend, Lazarus said on Friday.

"If today's any indication of what the weekend is going to be like it's going to be huge," he said.

"We had our best night of the year last night at the OD amusement park."

August

There's little question that growth will continue through July and the first two weeks of August, Damonte said, but after that the market may begin to weaken.

Occupancy in the third week in August looks as if it will be down by a few percentage points, although last-minute reservations make it impossible to say for sure, he said.

"We'll have to see if our really strong summer starts to flatten by the last third of the summer," he said.

August brings the first decline in reservations at Kingston Plantation, probably because families are preparing for the start of the school year, Barenberg said.

"August is always really about the last two weeks because the first two weeks look great," he said. "The last couple weeks when school's getting ready to start, it's the difference between a good month and a great month."