This is for personal, noncommercial use only.
Today's Front Page
Gas Buddy
Cost of staying in Atlantic City drops amid slow economy
Print this Article- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
ATLANTIC CITY - On sale. Come on down. Stay cheap. Please.
All right, Atlantic City hotels aren't actually begging customers to visit them, but the price of staying in the city is dropping - all over the city. That's especially true lately as the local tourism trade adjusts to the ancient reality of the cold-weather slow season in the midst of the current reality of a slow national economy.
"These are the lowest rates I've seen in 10 years" in business, says John Jackson of ACHotelExperts.com, a Web service based in the city that books rooms in all levels of hotels around the region. "And casinos that traditionally never lowered their rates are also following suit."
They include the town's hottest casino brand, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which promoted a "Summer of 99" deal this year - rooms starting at $99 a night from Monday to Thursday.
But Johnson adds that even Saturday nights in Atlantic City are on sale now. He's says he's gotten quotes from two different casino hotels of a $119-a-night rate for a December Saturday.
"That's ridiculously low," he said. "That's never been the case. Two hundred dollars and above would be the normal Saturday rate, even in the hardest of times. So $119 is lower than I've ever seen it."
And the deals extend to the town's newest boutique hotel, The Chelsea, which opened with all new rooms in the summer of 2008. Then, the management talked about charging $95 to $275 a night off-season, depending on the night and level of room. Last week, The Chelsea sent out an e-mail offer of rooms on a "one-day sale" at rates as low as $39 from Sunday to Thursday and $99 to $149 Saturdays, through the end of March.
Those kinds of price cuts are great news to Eric and Erin Alexander, who live in Cherry Hill and try to take weekend trips to Atlantic City four or so times a year. The Alexanders are in their late 20s and were on the Boardwalk Saturday at the end of the New Jersey Education Association's annual convention in the city.
Erin got a teachers-convention discount of $99 on their room at the Tropicana Casino & Resort, and the two agreed that lower prices on higher-quality rooms could make them visit Atlantic City more often.
"Typically we just go to Hotels.com, and look for the best deal, because you're not in the room that much," Eric said. "But upgrades are always good."
Sisters Diana and Kristen Markovich came to Atlantic City from Chicago for a wedding, so they figure they're not likely candidates to come back just for a good deal. But they said Saturday that they're enjoying their room at The Chelsea and - although they didn't book it - they think they got a good deal on it.
"My mom said the rates were a lot cheaper than she expected they'd be," Diana said.
The sisters added that they knew another wedding guest who was staying across Pacific Avenue at the considerably older-fashioned Flamingo Motel - and who wasn't paying much less than they are for The Chelsea.
Curtis Bashaw, The Chelsea's owner, is happy to hear about consumers enjoying good deals, and enjoying his hotel. But he worries about the long-term effects of all the current cutting.
"I think it is fair to say that Atlantic City is on sale," Bashaw says. "But because the city is on sale in such a dramatic fashion, it can backfire. ... If the market gets too discounted, people will think it's not a desirable place to go."
He knows hotels all over the country are hurting in a weak economy, and many are promoting lower prices to draw business - even including such super-premium names as Ritz-Carlton. But Atlantic City hotels are cutting prices in response to the place next door, each one looking for "short-term bumps," as Bashaw sees it.
"And pretty soon, we're all broke together," he warns. "From a consumer standpoint, I think it's fine. But I wonder about how dramatic the cutting has gotten. It's one thing to feel like you're getting a good value, but it's another to feel like you're at a fire sale and something is wrong."
Still, Don Marrandino, the new president of the four Harrah's Entertainment Inc. casinos in Atlantic City, said price-cutting has been even more aggressive for casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.
"I've come from Las Vegas. Compared to Las Vegas, the rates in Atlantic City are high," said Marrandino, who formerly ran five Harrah's casinos on the Strip.
Marrandino argues that it's important to keep "heads in beds" during the traditionally slow winter months, even if owners have to cut rates to fill rooms.
"December and January in Atlantic City are tough," he said. "But you have to keep trying. If you look like you're closed, people won't come back."
In Atlantic City, Harrah's is advertising discounted rates starting at $59, and so are the Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. casinos and Tropicana.
"Sleepovers are fun again. Rooms starting at $59," says one Trump billboard on the Atlantic City Expressway.
But lower rates are out there - even if they are in smaller print.
Spirit Airlines, which sends out frequent e-mails promoting its own discounted fares, often includes offers of cheap rates in hotels in Atlantic City - among its other markets. Recent local deals featured an offer of $45 a night at Trump Marina Hotel Casino in the "lowest November rate ever," according to Spirit, which also quoted mid-week rates of $45 to $55 at the Showboat Casino-Hotel, a Harrah's property.
Staff writer Donald Wittkowski contributed to this report.
Contact Martin DeAngelis:
609-272-7237
Posted in Atlantic_city, Top_three on Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:00 pm Updated: 10:59 pm.
7 comments:
Click here to report a comment as abusive.