The Return of the Tourist : Hotels Report Surge in Summer Business

What a difference a summer makes.

In stark contrast to the slump that occurred last summer as tourists avoided Southern California for fear of being caught in pre- and post-Olympic crushes, many area hotels are reporting that they are jammed for the Labor Day weekend.

Overall, the county’s hotel industry has been on an upward swing, with Anaheim leading the pack.

Few cities anywhere in the country reported better summer hotel room bookings than Anaheim, which saw room occupancy jump nearly 40% in July, according to the Anaheim Area Visitor & Convention Bureau. Hotel officials throughout the city say bookings have reached near-record highs this summer.

“It’s been a very, very good summer,” said Bill Snyder, president of the visitor bureau.

In fact, it was a turnaround summer for most Anaheim-area hotels, which reported an average 81% occupancy rate in July compared to 58% in July, 1984, the bureau reports. This increase was achieved despite the fact that the city has an estimated 2,000 more hotel rooms than it did last summer. The figures are compiled from the city’s 15 major hotels--which have a total of about 7,000 rooms.

What’s more, during the first seven months of 1985, Anaheim saw nearly 450,000 more visitors than it did during the same 1984 period, Snyder said. Through June, more than 3.3 million tourists visited the Anaheim area, he said. Many hotel officials credit the surge in tourism to Disneyland’s 30th birthday celebration--which features $12 million in prizes. Lodging executives also attribute the increase to a pent-up demand to see Southern California. Tens of thousands of visitors--fearing large crowds, high prices and freeway traffic jams--stayed away during last year’s Summer Olympics.

At the 1,000-room Anaheim Marriott, room occupancy for August has been 25% above projections, said Joel Rothman, the hotel’s general manager. “It’s unbelievable,” he said. Room occupancy at the Marriott, which is across the street from Disneyland, is 87% for August compared to 73% last August; the July occupancy rate was 81% compared to 57% in July, 1984, Rothman said.

Over much of the Labor Day weekend, the Marriott is sold out. “If someone were to call for reservations and ask for a room Saturday or Sunday evening, we’d have to turn them away,” said Rothman. And he said the hotel projects that room occupancy could exceed 90% in October.

Likewise, the Disneyland Hotel has been exceeding its earlier projections of summer occupancy rates in the mid-90% range. Judi Cabrera, the hotel’s vice president of advertising, said occupancy has been running just under 100%.

At the 240-room Ramada Inn in Anaheim, summer occupancy is near 96%, up 2% from last summer, said Kelly Powers, director of sales. But the hotel--which depends heavily on tourists and books few conventions--expects occupancy to severely slump by next week. “In the off-season, we sometimes have half our rooms unfilled,” she said.

Officials at the 1,600-room Anaheim Hilton are eager for the summer to end. Summer is the off-season for conventions, and the giant hotel adjacent to the Anaheim Convention Center relies heavily upon convention-related business. The Hilton does not post the high summer occupancy figures of many other local hotels, but occupancy greatly improves there during the heavy convention season--fall and spring. Hilton officials do not release room-occupancy rates.

The year-old Anaheim Hilton, which has struggled to fill its rooms, announced a major management change Friday. Holger Gantz, the general manager, was named general manager of the San Francisco Hilton. Gantz will oversee the addition of 310 rooms to the 1,685-room San Francisco Hilton. The addition will make the hotel the state’s largest. His replacement at the Anaheim Hilton is Glenn Hale, former general manager at the Dallas Hilton.