Survival Skills Keep Evans Hotels Going

A sign on the door says “Executive Offices.” A narrow stairway leads to a small reception area, where two secretaries in dark blue suits answer phones and type memos on computers.

The floor quakes; a 160-pound Great Dane bounds in. “Come on, Teddy,” owner Anne L. Evans says as she grabs the dog’s collar. “Lunchtime!” she sings, trying psychology. “French dip!”

This is the headquarters of Evans Hotels, a family-owned outfit on laid-back Mission Bay. With two hotels, Evans Hotels is a speck on a beach dominated by such big names as Hyatt, Hilton and Princess Resorts.

Evans Hotels survives because it underprices its bigger rivals and stays flexible; when the tourist business dried up in the 1970s, the family leased empty cottages to law students and the military.

Now the family’s survival skills face a new test as the all-important summer tourism season gets under way. Summer is the city’s best season, but at seaside resorts this year, the tide is out.

An economic recession and an oversupply of hotels threaten San Diego hoteliers. In March, one-third of the city’s hotel rooms were empty; scattered hotels are in bankruptcy or in work-out discussions with lenders. Around Mission Bay, the toll-free hotel reservation phone lines are quiet; at the Evans-owned Bahia, only 14% of its 325 rooms are booked for July.

Nervous hoteliers are luring vacationers with free breakfasts, free Sea World tickets, free tennis--even free rooms for kids. Discounting is rampant. San Diego Princess, the Evans’ archrival on Mission Bay, dropped its room rate for part of June to $99 from $140. The Bahia retaliated, slashing its rate by more than one-third to $59.

The Bahia even sent letters to every Los Angeles public school, offering teachers a discount during June. None of the district’s 36,000 teachers have yet booked a room in response. A few asked for cut rates in August, though.

With its salmon-colored bungalows and orange decor, the Bahia looks like a 1950s postcard. The suites have kitchens; you park by your door. Outside the lobby is a salt water pool that is home to Estaban, a lazy seal that guests inevitably report dead.

“We give our hotels their own personality,” said Anne Evans, 58.

When her husband, William D. Evans, opened the Polynesian-style resort 38 years ago, it was a risky move. The Bahia was the only resort on the isolated, freshly dredged Misson Bay.

But the bay caught on, and William Evans threw up more bungalows, a coffee shop and a low-rise. He bought the nearby Scripps family bay-side estate, razed it, and built his second hotel, the Catamaran.

William Evans died suddenly in 1984, and his widow, Anne, considered “cashing out.” The children rallied. Daughter Grace Evans Cherashore, 35, quit her banking job to handle hotel finances. William L. (Bill) Evans, 31, fresh from a stint with Southern California hoteliers Severyn and Arnold Ashkenazy, took over management of the two hotels.

The children took steps to freshen up the hotels. Two years ago, the family sunk $25 million into the tired Catamaran. They added 26 rooms, built a new restaurant and bar and spruced up the grounds.

The family’s monthly mortgage payment on the hotels swelled to $250,000 from practically nothing, but the gamble was necessary. With new hotels opening on Mission Bay, the old Catamaran wasn’t competitive.

“You have to drive by a lot of hotels before you come to us,” Bill Evans said.

He thinks his father, a big fan of faux-Polynesian design, would like the changes at the Catamaran. A volcano-look waterfall rises in the lobby above a goldfish pond. A parrot named Mercer squawks “Helloooooo” to hotel guests. A second-floor conference room is named “Kon Tiki.”

Outside, a pond is stocked with tiny fish, crayfish and a bullfrog. “Kids love it,” said Bill Evans. So do the guests; the crayfish end up on the hotel menu.

The family plans a $40-million fix-up at the Bahia--a parking garage, a new swimming pool, 200 more rooms. Bill Evans and his mother spent several weeks in Morocco two years ago, checking out Mediterranean architecture for ideas. But the renovation is on hold until San Diego’s hotel business recovers from its slump, or as Bill Evans puts it, “depression with a big D.”

For now, Bill Evans is thinking about summer. Last Thursday, he tooled around the Bahia in his black Porsche convertible, checking on last-minute repairs.

The reservation tally for Memorial Day looked promising. The Bahia was booked, but the more expensive Catamaran had 60 vacancies--nearly 20% of its 318 rooms.

Bill Evans stopped for lunch at the Catamaran. Only two other tables were full. The scene at the pool was much the same. Four guests bobbed in the water. Five others lounged on folding chairs.

It was quiet. It could be worse.

Consider what happened two days before the Memorial Day weekend in 1989. Eighty U.S. immigration agents, armed with a federal search warrant, raided the Bahia and Catamaran and arrested 32 undocumented workers. The Evans family was charged with 362 violations of the 1986 immigration reform law.

The family said it was duped by employees who presented false documentation, but agreed to pay a whopping $70,000 fine anyway. The family says its paperwork nowadays is “pristine.”

Later, back at his desk at the Bahia, Bill Evans reviews unfinished details. The Catamaran attendants want more valet parking spaces for the weekend. The hotel manager wants to lower Catamaran room rates for Friday night.

The fish tank behind the Catamaran bar must be stocked. Evans checks three bids: one for tropical fish, another for a collection of slimy “invertebrates,” a third bid for moray eels. Evans loves the eels, but is concerned. “We had them before and they ate each other.”

Too Many Rooms The figures show how overbuilding has depressed occupancy and room rates at San Diego hotels. This year, a travel slump brought on by the recession is compounding problems.

Room Room Room Average Year Rate Supply Demand Occupancy 1987 64.58 12,193,385 8,710,047 71.4% 1988 68.56 13,132,110 8,901,829 67.8% 1989 72.92 13,897,958 9,106,354 65.5% 1990 73.87 14,817,767 9,134,550 61.6% 1991* 71.28 3,716,566 2,313,059 62.2%

*Year to date through April

Source: Smith Travel Survey

Visiting San Diego Here are figures on visitor attendance during the first quarter of 1991 at different sites around the San Diego area, compared to the same period last year.

Place 1990 1991 % Change Mission Bay 289,756 273,591 -5.6 San Diego Zoo 601,430 888,963 +14.6 Old Town 1,091,466 1,111,330 +1.8 Museums 593,594 526,739 -11.3

Source: San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau