Steep room rates create sticker shock for visitors to Palm Beach County

Sherry Rhodes was in a euphoric mood last fall when she booked a trip to catch the Washington Nationals’ spring training in West Palm Beach.
After all, her team had just won the World Series. Rhodes’ happiness was tempered by the harsh reality of high-season hotel rates in Palm Beach County.
“Over $300 for a Hampton Inn?” Rhodes marveled. “Are you kidding me?”
Rhodes isn’t the only tourist feeling sticker shock this winter. Amid record tourism levels, a booming economy and a flurry of events such as spring training and the Honda Classic golf tournament, room prices in Palm Beach County have soared to eye-watering heights.
A recent search on Hotels.com showed the cheapest room at The Breakers in Palm Beach cost $1,095 — not for the week or even the weekend. For one night. And that’s not for a suite. It’s a room with a king-sized bed and no view of the ocean. A “junior suite” with two double beds went for $1,620.
Both rooms include free Wi-Fi, letting well-heeled guests feel a bit better about splurging.
A room at the Boca Raton Resort & Club is less dear — a room with one king-sized bed was listed for a recent night at $648, a sum Hotels.com labeled a “fantastic rate.” Alas, that gaudy total didn’t count the resort fee of $45.20. Nor did it include in-room Wi-Fi. Guests had to traipse to the lobby for free Internet.
Of course, The Breakers and the Boca Resort are iconic hotels located near the ocean in one of the toniest enclaves in the world.
What about more pedestrian places, like the Fairfield Inn & Suites on Forest Hill Boulevard in Wellington? A suite there was going for $264, according to Hotels.com. A bargain compared to The Breakers, but still a steep number, one driven by the throngs drawn by the Wellington Equestrian Festival.
Overall, Palm Beach County room rates are hitting new highs, according to STR, the firm formerly known as Smith Travel Research.
It says the average room rate in Palm Beach County in January was $232.81, up 3.5 percent from January 2019 and the priciest January on record.
January is just a warm-up for the rest of the tourist season. Palm Beach County room rates typically keep climbing in February and March. In March 2019, the average room rate was $272.

The Ben, the 208-room hotel in downtown West Palm Beach, opened in February and already is seeing robust rates and high occupancy. Room rates start at $380 but can range higher for busy dates, General Manager Bernardo Neto said.
“It’s just the law of supply and demand,” Neto said. “If you don’t have enough supply and there’s a lot of demand, prices will go up.”
Palm Beach County tourism boosters long have lamented a lack of supply. Hoteliers hoping to build new hotels compete for land and financing with developers of apartments, offices and condos.
However, the squeeze is easing a bit, said Glenn Jergensen, executive director of the Palm Beach County Tourism Development Council. Nearly 1,500 new rooms are scheduled to come on line, including more than 800 this year.
In addition to The Ben, the Canopy by Hilton is about to open in West Palm Beach. A new Residence Inn is under construction in Palm Beach Gardens, and a Mandarin Oriental is planned for Boca Raton.
For local hoteliers, the hefty room rates are both good and bad.
In the short term, what’s not to like about collecting hundreds of dollars to rent a bed for a night? In the long run, however, some fret that steep rates will scare off middle-class tourists.
So far, tourists seem unaffected by rising prices. Palm Beach County’s occupancy rate in January was 78.4 percent, up from 77.2 percent in January 2019, according to STR.
“We certainly have a clientele that in the wintertime decides South Florida is where they’re going to be,” Jergensen said.
In the case of Sherry Rhodes, she and her husband reserved a $300 room at the Hampton Inn but ditched it for an Airbnb that cost just $82. The couple, who recently retired to Sarasota from the D.C. area, donned Nationals jerseys for Monday’s spring training game.
It was their first trip to West Palm Beach, and they were impressed enough by the area that they hope to return for future spring training games.
But, Rhodes said, “We won’t stay at a hotel.”
jostrowski@pbpost.com
@bio561