North Coast Hotel Occupancy

Ken · Mar 2, 2012

From today's Sosua News:

Despite the economic crisis, according to reports in the newspaper 'El Faro' tourism in Mai?n, Puerto Plata, Sos?a and Cabarete is flourishing.

A journalist of the magazine, Mr. Leonardo Medrano, has done research on the occupancy of the various hotels. He came to the conclusion that the hotels in Maim?n, Playa Dorada and Puerto Plata have an occupancy of 97 to 100%. But Casa Marina in Sos?a and Viva Tangerine in Cabarete may also enjoy a nearly 100% occupancy. According to Leonardo Medrano, the hotels are fully booked even until the end of april. This welcome development is mainly caused by the large increase of Canadian, American and Dominican tourists.

cobraboy · Mar 2, 2012

Expat-in-Cabarete · Mar 2, 2012

I wished this journalist could do better research. At least Cabarete is not near a good occupancy rate. Yes, it's been somewhat better than last season but not close to five, four or even three years ago.

Viva and other AIs seem to do better only because travelers prefer to go all-inclusive, I assume as a way of knowing exactly what to budget for, but Cabarete is not an AI town like Playa Dorada (neither is Sosua), so concluding that tourism in Sos?a and Cabarete is flourishing based on an interview with an AI is totally flawed.

Tamborista · Mar 2, 2012

I am sure occupancy is @ a record high at The Sosua Bay Resort, housekeeping has not been paid in almost three months!

Seamonkey · Mar 2, 2012

Not sure about Cabarete, but Sosua has been much busier than last year. Casa Marina has been booked solid and even though Sosua Bay Resort is having huge issues, it has brought many people to Sosua.

Seamonkey · Mar 2, 2012

Tamborista said:
I am sure occupancy is @ a record high at The Sosua Bay Resort, housekeeping has not been paid in almost three months!

The guy who is currently leasing the resort is bailing out March 31st. Hope the employees get some money before then.

Tamborista · Mar 2, 2012

I heard it is a bad situation for both guests and employees at the moment.

Malibook · Mar 2, 2012

I don`t believe that Casa Marina is even remotely close to 100% occupancy, even on weekends, unless most of the guests just stay in their rooms with the curtains closed and they don`t go to the beach, pools, bars, and restaurants.

I have read similar reports on Playa Dorada in the past when many resorts had huge sections that were completely empty.
There are usually a few that do well and the rest struggle big time.
How many of them are closed now in this booming high season, 6?

Maybe a lot of the rooms are unavailable and not counted or these writers are just delusional and full of crap.

Conchman · Mar 2, 2012

Ken said:
From today's Sosua News:

Despite the economic crisis, according to reports in the newspaper 'El Faro' tourism in Mai?n, Puerto Plata, Sos?a and Cabarete is flourishing.

A journalist of the magazine, Mr. Leonardo Medrano, has done research on the occupancy of the various hotels. He came to the conclusion that the hotels in Maim?n, Playa Dorada and Puerto Plata have an occupancy of 97 to 100%. But Casa Marina in Sos?a and Viva Tangerine in Cabarete may also enjoy a nearly 100% occupancy. According to Leonardo Medrano, the hotels are fully booked even until the end of april. This welcome development is mainly caused by the large increase of Canadian, American and Dominican tourists.

As of March 1st, occupancy at the Casa Marina Beach is 60% and Casa Marina Reef is 68%. The average occupancy of the 18 hotels on the North coast we surveyed (not counting the hotels that are closed of course) is 78%. Source: each hotel is contacted directly.

Expat-in-Cabarete · Mar 2, 2012

Conchman, which hotels are contacted directly, the AIs or the non-AI smaller hotels too? Would you please give me the name of the company that contacted each hotel?

belmont · Mar 2, 2012

Expat-in-Cabarete said:
Conchman, which hotels are contacted directly, the AIs or the non-AI smaller hotels too? Would you please give me the name of the company that contacted each hotel?

When I was in the tour sales business, Playa Dorada management would provide a daily printout of occupancy and available vacancies of all hotels in the association to anyone requesting it. Hotels utilized it in case they needed space for overbookings. Tour operators used it to evaluate sales staff.

fdttwin · Mar 2, 2012

I just went on line and was able to secure rooms at the Casa Maria for the the middle of March and the first week of April 2012.I did not complete the transactions. Travelocity was the less expensive and offered a rate of $115 a night for the middle of March and $145 for the first week of April. Those prices were for two people and for a garden view room. The other sites were higher, around $200 for a ocean view room. So, the Hotel is not 100% full at those time, this is especially true if these discounted sites are still offering rooms. You already heard this. You can't believe already thing you read in the news.

Expat-in-Cabarete · Mar 2, 2012

belmont said:
When I was in the tour sales business, Playa Dorada management would provide a daily printout of occupancy and available vacancies of all hotels in the association to anyone requesting it. Hotels utilized it in case they needed space for overbookings. Tour operators used it to evaluate sales staff.

So we're talking AIs occupancy rate which in the case of Cabarete and Sosua is not indicative of how the hotel sector is doing.

belmont · Mar 2, 2012

Expat-in-Cabarete said:
So we're talking AIs occupancy rate which in the case of Cabarete and Sosua is not indicative of how the hotel sector is doing.

I was just refrencing one source of data which I used in past. Not to say this same data is not available for other markets like Sosua and Cabarete. It probably is. Also, utilizing past occupancy data, one could probably extrapolate comparison occupancy rates between hotel sectors based on one's present occupancy. The chains do this in deciding on discount rates. If the non-AIs historically perform at "x" percentage of the AIs, just do the math.

CaptnGlenn · Mar 2, 2012

it wasn't long ago that people were crying the blues here on dr1 about the lack of business and tourist in general on the N. Coast. Has there actually been a miraculous turn around?

Tamborista · Mar 2, 2012

fdttwin said:
You already heard this. You can't believe already thing you read in the news.

@ fdttwin -
We already know Sosua News is not a credible news source, however they do a nice job keeping us up to date on Montellano.
Those rates seem awfully high unless Semana Santa is in the mix, which is the case during the first week of April.

belmont · Mar 2, 2012

Also, there is a difference how much occupancy a hotel has sold and what is actually occupied. A tour company (i.e. GoGo Tours) will in advance purchase huge blocks of inventory at deeply discounted rates. Lets say 5000 nights at XYZ Hotel at 50%the rack rate. Hotel considers itself to have 5000 nights occupied. Up to tour company to market at a profit and not get stuck with any inventory. But despite discounting late in season, tour companies always eat some inventory. But, the hotel considers it occupied.

Castellamonte · Mar 2, 2012

You always need to look "behind the numbers" in this type of report. What defines the word "occupancy", for example? I knew of a resort in Cabarete who once was bragging up 80% or better occupancy. When I delved into the numbers (because I was a part owner, I could do this) I discovered that occupancy was defined as "rooms available vs rooms rented." Just take some rooms out of the availability pool (maintenance or anything else) and you have a great ratio!

Also, in condo/hotels availability is vastly skewed by the fact owners or their guests may be in residence. Again, those rooms are not available ergo they are not considered.

Remember, when someone says 95% the first question should be "95% of what?"

Personally, from what I see in Cabarete, if those resorts are doing so well they must be keeping the guests locked in chains in the basement throughout the day. You could shoot a cannon down the beach and not hit a soul sometimes.

Malibook · Mar 3, 2012

Castellamonte said:
You always need to look "behind the numbers" in this type of report. What defines the word "occupancy", for example? I knew of a resort in Cabarete who once was bragging up 80% or better occupancy. When I delved into the numbers (because I was a part owner, I could do this) I discovered that occupancy was defined as "rooms available vs rooms rented." Just take some rooms out of the availability pool (maintenance or anything else) and you have a great ratio!

Also, in condo/hotels availability is vastly skewed by the fact owners or their guests may be in residence. Again, those rooms are not available ergo they are not considered.

Remember, when someone says 95% the first question should be "95% of what?"

Personally, from what I see in Cabarete, if those resorts are doing so well they must be keeping the guests locked in chains in the basement throughout the day. You could shoot a cannon down the beach and not hit a soul sometimes.

Perhaps some of these resorts only renovate some of the rooms and the rest are basically shut down and not counted in the stats.
So 80% occupancy might only be 40% capacity, if that.

the gorgon · Mar 3, 2012

Castellamonte said:
You always need to look "behind the numbers" in this type of report. What defines the word "occupancy", for example? I knew of a resort in Cabarete who once was bragging up 80% or better occupancy. When I delved into the numbers (because I was a part owner, I could do this) I discovered that occupancy was defined as "rooms available vs rooms rented." Just take some rooms out of the availability pool (maintenance or anything else) and you have a great ratio!

Also, in condo/hotels availability is vastly skewed by the fact owners or their guests may be in residence. Again, those rooms are not available ergo they are not considered.

Remember, when someone says 95% the first question should be "95% of what?"

Personally, from what I see in Cabarete, if those resorts are doing so well they must be keeping the guests locked in chains in the basement throughout the day. You could shoot a cannon down the beach and not hit a soul sometimes.

brilliant posting. i cannot say more.

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