Car events on the Monterey Peninsula foster gouging
Classic Car Week on the Monterey Peninsula always attracts attention, particularly when rare cars sell for extraordinarily high prices. A Ferrari and Duesenberg at different auctions in late August combined to sell for more than $70 million.
The vehicle showcase, including six significant auctions and about two dozen other automotive events, also reiterates the Central Coast’s reign as the country’s most diverse automotive destination.
Enthusiasts from the Bay Area and collectors from around the world flood the area. Chain hotels (e.g. Embassy Suites, Hyatt Regency), roadside motels (e.g. Days Inn, Super 8), boutique inns (e.g. Four Sisters), independents and golf resorts are packed. Restaurants and pubs are crowded. Proprietors are well aware of the boon tourists bring to the area.
With the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach as its yearly finale, Classic Car Week is the most popular automotive event of the season. But the area is a nearly year-round automobile haven.
New and vintage cars and motorcycles race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca through the year. Public and private automotive museums and a rental business specializing in exotics get plenty of business. There’s a gallery specializing in automotive art in Carmel, a race car driving school in Salinas and a healthy corps of classic car owners zipping around in their machines.
But as occurred during Classic Car Week and at other favorite events, automotive to golf and festivals to conferences, there’s a problem. How does everyone find accommodations and how much do visitors have to pay?
Carmel is a hub for many autorelated activities. During peak times, some proprietors take advantage of the supply-and-demand scenario. On many well-known travel sites, prices in all level of accommodations this year were as much as six times higher than during slower times of the year. It defined gouging in many locations, but there were exceptions.
Tamara Mims, president of Four Sisters Inn, which includes Green Gables Inn and Gosby House Inn in Pacific Grove and Coachman’s Inn
in Carmel, knows the peak and offseasons on the peninsula as well as anyone. She reports rates typically increase by $50 per night during special events.
But the popularity of motorsports on the peninsula presents other issues for enthusiasts considering visiting for the first time. Regular visitors often reserve their rooms for the following year when they check out from their current stay. It’s also common for property owners to require two- or four-night minimum stays.
Next year, the situation will likely get worse. After a 15-year absence, IndyCar racing will return Sept. 20-22 to Laguna Seca Raceway. Accommodation options will likely mimic the current dilemma during Classic Car Week. The IndyCar event will be held at the same time as the annual Monterey Jazz Festival.
Mike Terry, the long-time proprietor of Los Laureles Lodge in Carmel Valley, maintains standard rates for special events, but he does increase minimum stay requirements.
“You build a product; you’ll build a widget,” said Terry. “I am a supply and demand guy. But why should that widget go up, two, three or four times just because there’s a little more demand? The value of the product stays the same. The demand rises, but I don’t think the demand rises at a higher rate than what the value of the product is.”
Terry, a bicycling enthusiast, also has a yearly return guest list for the Sea Otter Classic, the annual cyclist festival at Laguna Seca. He retains the same approach to accommodations as he does for Classic Car Week.
“I don’t want to say that all people who don’t raise their rates are all great,” said Terry. “We do set a minimum stay. For the car week that just happened, I want to see three or four days. I am not looking for a single-day person just because my rates are fair.”
But at least Terry and some other proprietors are fair. It’s the exception, not the rule.