Quote:
Originally Posted by BroadHopper
Last summer the industry as a whole in the US was down about 40%. Which is about right as this is the US percentage of unemployed/underemployed and those who have given up looking. Also the stock market crash reduced available disposable income. I'm sure it is much worst this year.
Not only hospitality is down. Airline traffic is also down about 40%. I have rental property in CO and have not been able to rent it out a full ski season in two years. My CO neighbors are saying the same thing.
Last summer was the first summer I was not able to rent the Laconia condo out other than Bike Week. It is not just restaurants.
I use to go out all the time. Today, I rarely go out.
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I feel terrible for you and anyone who has had to curve an appetite for dining out.
Many of the reasons you sited are lagging indicators and explain why last year was difficult in the hospitality industry. Yes the market crashed a year and a-half ago, but during the past 12 months it has preformed its best for the past decade. The Union Ave strip of Lakeport restaurants seem to have many cars in the parking lots.
My take on this threads' topic centers around advertising and social change. You are struggling in Breckenridge. Breckenridge is a community that follows the lead set by Vail Associates. From my prospective, VA has still not learned the difference between its historic customers who were attracted via print or TV advertising, and todays customers who turn to the Internet.
A case in point is this forum. To my knowledge you'll not find an online environment of this high quality serving Summit county. I believe that one of the reason for this is because every attempt I've made to research summit county online, I have encountered extremely rude and bandwidth abusive web sites. This site is less intrusive and allows interaction between guests/memebers. Lurkers then base decisions from public opinion. This would not be nearly as strong of an online community if we had to download some huge flash file/graphic before we could enter (snow.com). Too many people would be eliminated at introduction consequent of bandwidth issues.
To make things worst for you in Breck, I don't see those folks a VA participating in any of the free online services for the ski industry. I personally have attempted to get them to maintain ski reports in my web site for 11 years (free service). My site is on the verge of a top 100K ranking and they have no representation. During the same period Brenton Woods, Pats Peak, and a number of ski areas nation wide have establish a growing number of relationships with skiers for free. I've reviewed stats for visitors with interest in CO reports and see trends of a shift in interest from Summit County to Telluride and Wolf Creek. These are two organizations who have in my opinion a better understanding for the internet culture. I've seen the same results with New England areas. Peoples' online activity has gravitated away from Killington and towards smaller areas. I believe this is consequent of both the lack of understanding for the Internet culture as well as the lift ticket prices.
I am soon (but not soon enough) to open a restaurant in the LR. It did concern me when I visited neaghbooring restaurants for reconnaissance work, I saw everything except customers. Many restaurant are not participating in the various online communities that can serve them for free. Some are listed with the pay-for service sites but those sites are not nearly as effective. Why spend the money. If you want to see your favorite LR restaurant busier, tell them to get more involved with google, yahoo, winnipasekee.com and baygo.
I practice what I preach. As some of you know I have a rather unorthodox approach to how I intend to open my restaurant. So unorthodox that I now have in excess of 200 people waiting to bring in a party of 4 during our soft opening period. I have not spent a penny on advertising (help wanted ad exception).
The dollar is still at a relatively low value around the world. This means that there is opportunity to attract foreign tourist and fill our restaurants. I believe that if I work hard to build the community around me, I will prosper with it. I invite any and all restaurant owners to contact me. I'll be glad to share how I believe we can gain interest from local and foreign diners. I guarantee that those who follow my lead will later state that they never had as an efficient customer maker in their past, and its FREE.
Let's not worry about the tough times we've been through or dream about the better times in our future. Let's seize the moment of now and live it to the fullest.
By the way, I do intend to sponsor this site once I'm open. That is, as long as the web master will allow me to use txt advertising like google does, instead of a graphic banner. I encourage all local business to do the same.