Luxury Hotels Compete with Luxury Vacation Rentals for Group Travel Market
June 27, 2006. The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reports on the "friend-trip," in which people join up with friends, relatives or other families. It can be a memorable way to bond and cut vacation expenses at the same time. It's a niche the travel industry is increasingly targeting, especially with hotel and other vacation costs up sharply this summer. It is a market where the vacation rentals industry has the advantage. In fact some hotels are now building cottages to tap that market.
The Journal article quotes a spokeswoman for Jekyll Island Club Hotel in Jekyll Island, Ga., who says that multifamily trips are "a big part of our market now. The Jekyll Island Club recently spent $5.5 million renovating two cottages, one with 10 rooms and one with 13, that groups can book in part or whole.
Another example is Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego, with several two-unit bungalows and buildings, where small groups now account for about 25% of its summer business. The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in Kiawah Island, S.C. has two small-group specialists, who often plan golf, fishing and biking outings. The hotel added a family- reunion specialist in the past year.
A survey by travel consultants Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, which calls the trend “togethering�, reports that eight out of 10 Americans will take at least one trip this year with friends or relatives, up by more than a third since 2001. "People want to reconnect by spending more time with friends and family," says the company's chief marketing officer.
At our own vacation rental development, we have long gotten a substantial amount of our business from family reunions and from groups of friends. With a number of individual cabins, there is the opportunity for groups to bond and engage in group activities while having their own individual space. It is nice to see that the luxury hotels have discovered that this business is large enough to commpete for. However, it means that vacation rentals must provide an acceptable level of luxury and amenities to maintain this business.
