Faced with the toughest financial crunch in decades, hotels are moving beyond typical discounts and offering unusual promotions to lure clients and create buzz.
The 27-room Crane's BeachHouse in Delray Beach, for example, offers a ``The Bed-in for Peace'' package linked with a nearby exhibit marking John Lennon and Yoko Ono's eight-day ``bed-in'' during 1969. The package includes champagne, fruit and other goodies to make breakfast without leaving your room.
Crane's threw a ``Give Peace a Chance'' party last week, featuring a replica of the famous bed, with guests asked to wear '60s styles and enjoy ``hippy hour'' drinks.
In California, the 119-room Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach offers an ``Ink and Stay'' package with $100 toward a tattoo and a bottle of tequila to numb the pain.
Hotels are reacting to a dismal travel market. Nationwide this summer, occupancy rates hovered below 60 percent, the lowest since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And revenues per available rooms dropped almost 20 percent to less than $60, the steepest dive in 22 years, Smith Travel Research said.
Hoteliers long have turned to promotions in slow times. But travel experts say more properties now rely on specials to survive.
South Florida hotels are pitching some of the most creative deals to offset a roughly 20 percent drop in revenues regionwide so far this year.
At the 124-room Atlantic Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, for instance, a ``Cheers for Years'' deal gives a restaurant or spa credit equal to the age of the oldest in the room. A guest age 54, for example, gets $54 credit per day, after showing his driver's license as proof of age.
The 392-room Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Aventura now offers guests a ``Future Floridian'' package: Hunt for a South Florida home and you receive a preferred list of Realtors, GPS to navigate the area, valet parking plus two, one-hour massages for ``tired footsies.''
Buy a home in the area, and Turnberry will throw in a resort discount for ``future house guests.''
Hoteliers are touting packages to avoid cutting room rates directly. They fear a consumer backlash if they slash rates now and try to raise them later in better times.
``The hotels are doing anything they can to increase usage without reducing prices,'' said Sam Shank, chief executive of dealbase.com, an online search engine for hotel deals.
For guests, not all packages mean big savings. Some aim more to generate publicity for hotels.
For example, the tattoo package at Hotel Erwin starts at $399 per night. But if guests buy the $269 room, $100 tattoo voucher, $20 bottle of tequila, and lotion and ice for the pain, the total would come to roughly the same price, Shank estimates.
The 27-room Crane's BeachHouse in Delray Beach, for example, offers a ``The Bed-in for Peace'' package linked with a nearby exhibit marking John Lennon and Yoko Ono's eight-day ``bed-in'' during 1969. The package includes champagne, fruit and other goodies to make breakfast without leaving your room.
Crane's threw a ``Give Peace a Chance'' party last week, featuring a replica of the famous bed, with guests asked to wear '60s styles and enjoy ``hippy hour'' drinks.
In California, the 119-room Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach offers an ``Ink and Stay'' package with $100 toward a tattoo and a bottle of tequila to numb the pain.
Hotels are reacting to a dismal travel market. Nationwide this summer, occupancy rates hovered below 60 percent, the lowest since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And revenues per available rooms dropped almost 20 percent to less than $60, the steepest dive in 22 years, Smith Travel Research said.
Hoteliers long have turned to promotions in slow times. But travel experts say more properties now rely on specials to survive.
South Florida hotels are pitching some of the most creative deals to offset a roughly 20 percent drop in revenues regionwide so far this year.
At the 124-room Atlantic Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, for instance, a ``Cheers for Years'' deal gives a restaurant or spa credit equal to the age of the oldest in the room. A guest age 54, for example, gets $54 credit per day, after showing his driver's license as proof of age.
The 392-room Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Aventura now offers guests a ``Future Floridian'' package: Hunt for a South Florida home and you receive a preferred list of Realtors, GPS to navigate the area, valet parking plus two, one-hour massages for ``tired footsies.''
Buy a home in the area, and Turnberry will throw in a resort discount for ``future house guests.''
Hoteliers are touting packages to avoid cutting room rates directly. They fear a consumer backlash if they slash rates now and try to raise them later in better times.
``The hotels are doing anything they can to increase usage without reducing prices,'' said Sam Shank, chief executive of dealbase.com, an online search engine for hotel deals.
For guests, not all packages mean big savings. Some aim more to generate publicity for hotels.
For example, the tattoo package at Hotel Erwin starts at $399 per night. But if guests buy the $269 room, $100 tattoo voucher, $20 bottle of tequila, and lotion and ice for the pain, the total would come to roughly the same price, Shank estimates.
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