Lodging industry officials say a review of chain hotels and vacation rentals show bookings are trending upward this summer, despite a slow May.
On Tuesday, Bill Obreiter of Zartico – the city’s data research firm – updated members of the Ocean City Tourism Commission on lodging performance in April, and provided booking data for the upcoming months.
In April, chain hotels reported $5.9 million in revenue while short-term rentals reported $1.4 million. Average daily rates (ADR) had increased 4% for hotels and 24% for vacation rentals, when compared to the same time period last year.
“You will see a very strong beginning of the month, a mid-week lag in the middle of the month of April, and then the month ended up strong,” he explained.
Obreiter said the month of April also recorded a significant number of bookings for future months. He said a spike occurred at the end of the month, when the artist lineup for the Country Calling music festival was announced.
“What we’ve seen, based on this announcement, is bookings go up not just for October when Country Calling dates are, but actually every single month up until that time period,” he said.