Another Hawaii hotel sales representative came into our office last week to talk about her property. And as so many others have done in the past month, she said “We even have holiday space, tell your clients.”
Considering our that medium-sized office averages more than one request a day, even now, for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, we would love to. But there just aren’t flights. December 26 and 27 are almost sold out, and depending on the city, January 2 and 3 returns aren’t available at any price.
We joke, in fact, about who will get the last Christmas request every year, and when. (It’s usually about the 21st or 22nd of December, often someone who is shocked that other people have thought of flying somewhere warm around the holidays.)
And usually, hotel space is sold out or close to it for the week after Christmas for tropical beach destinations. But last year we heard of some openings. And in 2009 a good number of them have space. Even some popular high-end properties like the Sheraton Maui, the Grand Hyatt Kauai and the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island have space. Not to mention many many smaller, lesser-known properties.
Similar situations exist in Mexico and the Caribbean, although as a West Coast agency we get many more requests for Hawaii.
One of the reasons, airlines have significantly cut flights, which may make sense for most of the year. But a end-of-year holiday trip is still a priority for many, and the easiest time for many to take vacation time. Which means it’s probably the time of year demand is down least.
So in this down economy, many hotel rooms and condos will actually sit empty, while frustrated travelers try every booking site and travel agent they can think of to find flights. And what are the airlines doing about it?
Nothing.
I realize airline schedules are planned way in advance. I also realize that airlines cannot haphazardly put on additional flights at the drop of a hat. But this isn’t the drop of a hat, and the flight-to-hotel availability problem has been obvious for months.
With planes sitting idle, and crews on furlough, it seems like it would have been trivial for an airline to add say, a few “extra sections” to top destinations for those most popular holiday weekend dates. Even if they had to charge a flat and relatively high cost to cover their costs and make a profit. I’m not an expert on the rules for flights to foreign countries, ie Mexico and the Caribbean, but Hawaii, St. Thomas and San Juan would be relatively trivial. (And yes, I realize that any cost would have to include the probability of losing money on either parking the plane in question, or flying in back and forth to the mainland between the prime dates.)
But even at over $1,000 a ticket, and at least double that in first class, I have no doubt an airline could fill a plane for a special roundtrip fare from say, December 26 to January 2 from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Maui. Or from Washington to San Juan. Even now. Within less than a week. Maybe sooner than that.
And with hotels facing empty rooms at the height of the season, perhaps they might even be willing to subsidize a bit of the cost if necessary.
It just seems like empty rooms plus people who desperately want to fill them equals a potential win-win situation.
It’s probably too late for 2009. But if the economy, and thus tourism, doesn’t completely recover in 2010, maybe next year?
(Photo by marblecolor/creative commons/flickr.com)
