02-24-2012, 10:38 AM
I'm not any good at stats, but there is a poster at Tripadvisor who has been working with tourism and big money clients (including hotel industry) for a couple decades (posts as amberloo). He can give you stats to blow your mind without breaking a mental sweat. You can PM him ... his home forum is Oahu but he travels to all the islands on business.
He swears that the hotel industry is not threatened by the B&B's and rentals, that they have their own target customers.
My own observations:
From participating at TA myself and reading countless queries, I have to agree with him that there is very little crossover between the two. There are hotel people and condo people. There are condo people and alternative rentals people. There are B&B lovers who can't stand resorts. There are people who only do package tours and there are independents. There are people who mostly stay where they have points and can stay for free.
Very few people have no leaning at all and are completely undecided.
With the condo people and villa people, if they get worried, they typically seek other condo and villa options attached to reputable companies. They do not flee to hotels.
People who love the unique independent lodgings tend to have a high trust factor. Sometimes they do great and very occasionally they get burned. (I fall into this category of traveler.) These people are often quite intuitive, but they can fall prey to overly rosy ad copy.
As I said before, there are people who come here and lay down serious bucks, deposits of over 10K. These people have been getting burned more.
RICO is useless practically. It takes a lot of energy to file a complaint, and most people from out of state are going to feel daunted. I got defrauded by a realtor and looked at the process and threw up my hands, and that was a much bigger deal than a rental.
I'm not specifically "supporting" the bill or not, more just interested in the conversation.
It looks to me like the primary interest lies with the State of Hawai'i. 1) It will collect more taxes, and 2) it can say it is making an effort to protect consumers.
He swears that the hotel industry is not threatened by the B&B's and rentals, that they have their own target customers.
My own observations:
From participating at TA myself and reading countless queries, I have to agree with him that there is very little crossover between the two. There are hotel people and condo people. There are condo people and alternative rentals people. There are B&B lovers who can't stand resorts. There are people who only do package tours and there are independents. There are people who mostly stay where they have points and can stay for free.
Very few people have no leaning at all and are completely undecided.
With the condo people and villa people, if they get worried, they typically seek other condo and villa options attached to reputable companies. They do not flee to hotels.
People who love the unique independent lodgings tend to have a high trust factor. Sometimes they do great and very occasionally they get burned. (I fall into this category of traveler.) These people are often quite intuitive, but they can fall prey to overly rosy ad copy.
As I said before, there are people who come here and lay down serious bucks, deposits of over 10K. These people have been getting burned more.
RICO is useless practically. It takes a lot of energy to file a complaint, and most people from out of state are going to feel daunted. I got defrauded by a realtor and looked at the process and threw up my hands, and that was a much bigger deal than a rental.
I'm not specifically "supporting" the bill or not, more just interested in the conversation.
It looks to me like the primary interest lies with the State of Hawai'i. 1) It will collect more taxes, and 2) it can say it is making an effort to protect consumers.