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Lodging businesses may benefit from rising gas prices

Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

COLUMBIA COUNTY — Thanks to rising gas prices and less available cash, he Fourth of July will probably be a little bit lighter in terms of travel than the holiday is accustomed to. But this may work out to the benefit of some local accommodations providers.

Vanessa Holsapple, proprietor of the Brook ‘n Wood Campground in Elizaville, said reservations there are about the same as last year.

“We’ve found a lot of people staying closer to home, not traveling as far away, but booking for a longer stay when they are traveling,” she said. “Instead of Lake George, people are camping closer to where they live so they don’t use as much gas.”

The campground is seeing more people staying in the seasonal campsites, parking their mobile home or truck for the season and driving back and forth with their cars, she said.

Ross Audino, proprietor of the Inn at Silver Maple Farm, Route 295, East Chatham, said he has the same amount of reservations for the Fourth of July as in the past.

“People that are coming would normally have traveled greater distances,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of Lake George people. They’re double the amount of fuel.”

Since his capacity is only 22, Audino said his business hasn’t suffered. However, his costs are up.

“My heating fuel is double what it was last year,” he said.

The news is not so good at the St. Charles Hotel, 16 Park Place, Hudson. Manager Kappi Patel said that, although the Fourth of July is “OK,” his business overall is down by 25 percent.

“People are not coming as much as they used to,” he said. “We found people are looking for a cheaper alternative. They’re not going as far, or they’re finding it cheaper to commute back and forth instead of staying overnight.”

He said he’s working on promoting his business over the Internet via a Web site, www.stcharleshotel.com.

Jane Hester, who runs Kinderhook Bed & Breakfast, said the gas hike hasn’t affected her business yet.

“Most of our clientele is people’s relatives,” she said. “Not necessarily tourists. I’m booked for the Fourth of July. People who live in Kinderhook, Niverville, Stuyvesant and don’t have space for their relatives.”

She said she draws her customers from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Roma Ciolko-Apkarian of the American Automobile Association in Albany said gas prices and the general economic slump have reduced travel from last summer by 1 to 1 1/2 percent.

She confirmed Holsapple’s observation that travelers are modifying their trips to make them closer to home. But camping may be a special case: Where Holsapple said more people were extending their visits, Ciolko-Apkarian said stays are being reduced, from three or four night to two, for instance, and that more affordable accommodations, such as fast food restaurants, are being sought. Or campgrounds.

“The other thing we found is that because of the cost-consciousness in travel decisions, people are more attracted by special offers, gas rebates, and other things the gas companies are starting to offer,” she said.

Despite the gas hikes, 85 percent of traveling is still done by car, she said; air travel is down over last summer as well.

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