While some hoteliers said their properties are doing OK for Christmas week, several vacation villa managers said they were forced to slash rates or offer free nights in order to get bookings over the holiday season—traditionally a time for high rates and longer minimum stays.
"They’re booking at the off-season rate," Sharon Ehle, who owns Orion’s Hill vacation villa on St. John, said.
And they’re booking late, Ehle said. She said her house booked for Christmas week just three weeks ago.
According to Vacation St. Croix owner Marti Gotts, who manages about 40 villas in the rental market, about 85 percent of her villas would be filled by August in most years. This year, she was still booking Christmas week last week. About 90 percent of her villas are filled thanks to a 10 percent discount for the Christmas holidays and a reduction in the minimum of nights from 10 to seven.
"This is the first Christmas we have not been filled, but people are looking for bargains, and we’re very happy we ended up with what we have," she said.
The St. Thomas-based McLaughlin Anderson Luxury Villas manages about 100 vacation villas across the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, as well as Grenada. Owner Nancy Anderson said that they’re about 75 percent filled.
"Business is poor. We struggled to fill our villas. People are expecting and demanding deals," Anderson said.
To fill the villas, Anderson stepped up marketing efforts. She didn’t offer any promotions for Christmas week, but starting Jan. 9, the company will give one free night with a week-long stay.
Richard Doumeng, manager at Bolongo Bay Beach Club, suggested that the vacation villas aren’t doing as well as the hotels because of discounted hotel prices, where families can now get two hotel rooms for the price of a villa.
"And they’ll have the amenities of the hotel," Doumeng said.
This means no cooking, someone cleaning the room every day, and "the bar is right there," Doumeng said.
At Bolongo, rates are up a bit and the hotel occupancy rate stands in the low 90 percent range. By Sunday, Doumeng said the hotel will be 100 percent filled.
Christmas week looks good at Emerald Beach Hotel, manager Joel Kling said. The hotel is "pretty full," but Kling said there are some openings toward the end of Christmas week. However, the hotel dropped its rates to keep it in line with hotels across the Caribbean.
"All major hotels dropped their rates by 25 percent," Kling said.
Kling said Emerald Beach has a mix of people who booked in advance, repeat customers and last-minute bookers. He attributes some of the late bookings to a drop in airfares in December.
The Buccaneer Hotel in St. Croix, dressed to the nines in its Christmas finery, has attracted the usual roster of extended families.
"Christmas is above the 90 percent mark," Vicki Locke, marketing manager at the Buccaneer Hotel, said.
And the Buccaneer’s rates are higher this holiday season than they were last year.
Although Maho Bay Camps on St. John didn’t cut rates at any of its properties, the rates are on the low end of the accommodations pricing scale, a factor that marketing manager Melody Smith thinks helped fill its Maho and Concordia properties.
"We’re completely full," she said.
Smith said the price factor, coupled with uncertainty over Maho’s fate, helped convince people to visit while they can. Maho’s lease runs out in 2012, but the Trust for Public Land is in the midst of negotiations to purchase the land for inclusion in V.I. National Park.
At Carringtons Inn on St. Croix, owner Roger Carrington was delighted that the five-room bed and breakfast had filled up. "A lot of reservations came through online sites like Expedia," he said. While Christmas is good, Carrington said that January was definitely flat.
About 80 percent of the 12 rooms at Island View Guesthouse on St. Thomas are filled for Christmas week, owner Beth Kikendall said. She said that’s off from last Christmas but a lot better than October and November.
"Anything coming through the door is great," she said, noting that she didn’t reduce the guesthouse’s already-low rates.
Nearly everyone marveled that visitors waited so late to book their flights, but, unlike previous Christmas seasons, there are airplane seats available. Fly to St. Thomas from Miami on Christmas Eve and home New Year’s Day, and the online travel website Orbitz had tickets for $544 round trip. If you want to stay until Jan. 2, the cost rises to $754 with a stop on the way north in St. Croix.
The Dec. 24 to Dec. 31 trip from Miami to St. Croix will cost $519 round trip with a stop in San Juan on the way north. Stay till Jan. 3 and the price from St. Croix to Miami is $754 with no stops.
Several people said that the recent snowstorm that blanketed the northeast was both a bother and a blessing. It delayed arrivals but it also convinced people who weren’t necessarily thinking about a Caribbean vacation to head south.
"We pray for snow as much as they do in Vermont ski areas," Gotts said.
