Jekyll’s Affordability: A Gloomy Forecast

The February 2009 “Jekyll Island Visitor Analysis and Business Plan” (page 31) produced for the JIA by the Bleakly Advisory Group provides a projection of hotel room rates in coming years. As the following figures show, BAG projects an alarming average daily room rate increase of 47 percent over the next 5 years:

    2009 - $125.16      

    2010 - $137.69  

    2011 - $154.95 

    2012 - $166.76      

    2013 - $177.57

    2014 - $183.44

The room rate increases cited above are not just hypothetical, they are confirmed by the rates projected for Jekyll’s new hotels.

• The 295-room Canopy Bluff Resort (the replacement for the Buccaneer Hotel) is projected to have an ADR of $178 in its first year of operation.
  

• Linger Longer’s 200-room “mid-scale” hotel will have an ADR of $170 during its first full year of operation.
  

• The 110-room Inn at Georgia Coast will have an opening ADR of $200 and will approach $300 a day by the year 2014.
  

• Linger Longer’s 150-room economy hotel will have an ADR of $130 in its first year of operation.
  

• The 135-room Hampton Inn & Suites will open with an ADR of $140.
  

• Room rates at the replacement hotels for the Oceanfront Resort and the Oceanside Inn & Suites have not yet been announced.
  

• The hotel projects that have already been approved show us that the JIA’s affordability policy, with its promise of a “substantial number of affordable accommodations,” results in 605 new hotel rooms with a combined ADR of $180 and 285 new hotel rooms with a combined ADR of $135 in their first full year of operation. The balance, obviously, is not in the favor of average-income citizens.
  

The trend toward higher priced hotel accommodations has been sanctioned by the JIA’s 17 March 2009 reinterpretation of the legal requirement that Jekyll’s facilities be affordable for average income citizens. Claiming that Jekyll’s affordability statute “does not specify affordability at privately-operated amenities,” including hotels, the JIA has opened the door for private resort prices to prevail within our State Park.

Given the projected trend in hotel room pricing and the JIA’s reinterpretation of Jekyll’s affordability statute, court action and/or State legislation may become necessary in order to uphold Jekyll’s affordability mandate. In any case, widespread public support for Jekyll’s affordability will be required in the near future if the island’s amenities are to be priced in accord with its status as a State Park rather than on a par with private beachside resorts.

If you have not yet signed IPJI’s online “Affordability Petition,” please do so now.