Key West hotel rates are coming down, and this is good news for local businesses and visitors alike.
Over the past couple years, as Key West saw many hotel rooms go offline during renovations and conversions to condominiums (and hotel-miniums), room rates went to all-time highs.
Now, most of those hotel rooms are back online and rooms rates have come back down to earth.
And if you are looking for a bargain, visiting Key West this summer will save you a lot of money.
A search of discounts and deals for Key West hotels show bargains (we used http://www.keywesttravelguide.com/key-west-hotel-map.html ) look for the Key West specials and deals link with the red save tag):
- Old Town bed & breakfast inns as low as $129 per night
- Four-star Old Town resorts as low as $179 per night
- and super-budget rooms on the island at under $100!
This more than makes up for the $30 extra it will cost in gas for the average car to drive here from the mainland.
Summer is a great time to visit Key West. Room rates are low, it's less crowded, and the fishing is excellent.
Plus, the sea temperature is warm and very comfortable, at least 80 degrees, and you can snorklel, swim, and dive to your heart's content.
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15 comments:
Ya know, it's about time we got back to reality around here!
Good to see that prices for hotels are starting to get a bit more reasonable. My wife and I gave up going to Key West after the "equity rich" starting driving the housing/hotel prices into the stratosphere. Having lived on Cudjoe for 3 years and coming back all through the 90's I was disappointed that the keys had gotten out of the reach of regular working stiffs.
Sure wish all the disgruntled realtors on your blog would stop posting anonymously and let people see how mature they are when their rants have a name attached to the them :>
Keep up the good work Dave!
mugsy - thanks! now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the Spottswoods don't go ahead with their mega-plan (which would close over 500 hotel rooms for a massive redevelopment)
The Spottswood project is on hold but not dead. Casino Gambling is what is the hold up - wouldn't Key West be the perfect spot? Atlantic City South anyone?
Yes, Key West needs casino gambling - more sin to tax.
Even if and when the hotels offer bargains and discounts, who wants to visit Key West in the summer with gasoline prices at all time highs, airlines charging extra to make up their declining dollars and the price of everything from food to electricity hitting every pocketbook and wallet from one coast to another? Come off it already - even the Europeans won't come to Florida in the same numbers as a few years ago.
Better quit wasting your life in a trouble tourist economy my friends - the end is near for your lifestyle in so called paradise city!
"Even if and when the hotels offer bargains and discounts, who wants to visit Key West in the summer..."
Fact of life: people need to take a vacation.
With the weak dollar, heading out of the country is very expensive. So, Key West is a very attractive place to visit. There are discount flights available to Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports, and the drive down the Keys will only cost an additional $30 (round-trip!) in gas.
As for Europeans - they are coming here in droves - and we welcome that! Key West is a bargain for them.
Summertime in Key West is wonderful and the current hotel bargains now make it within reach for most families.
"Stayvacations" are the new norm. Don't travel, spend money on gasoline and airfare you don't have, don't use credit cards to holiday and don't waste precious resources! Go Green! Stay home, enjoy your own 'backyard' and find new adventures and new things to do without spending money on a trip you can't afford.
Stay away from Key West and enjoy your life on your own terms.
Been down Duval Street lately? Every bar and restaurant is suffering. All the high end eating establishments are not making money and the bars are deserted. Locals aren't even venturing out to spend what little money they have and the tourism industry is in a panic.
Cayo Dave don't you read the web? More and more people are suffering from high prices that they are staying home this year - and probably next too.
Key West needs to get off the idea that tourism will bring in the bucks to this island. Even Gay Pride week is having a low turnout especially since the cost to come to Key West is still too high.
Enough said.
Except for the past few years, summer is typically slow in Key West. I think we are returning to that cycle. This shouldn't be a major headline
But Duval Street businesses that grew dependent on HUGE numbers of cruise ships are singing the blues now that the ships are visiting less frequently.
The previous commenter may be content to enjoy their own backyard, but most Americans (and the rest of the globe) want to vacation away from home - visit new places, or favorite places, and enrich their lifes' experiences.
Cayo Dave, you can't vacation away from home when YOU HAVE NO MONEY TO WASTE living day to day!
Sure, most Americans WANT to travel but they NEED to live and spend wisely on food, gasoline, a roof over their head and the other requirements to stay alive.
WANTING and NEEDING are two different things (remember the housing mess started with such talk) Geez Cayo Dave when will you wake up and realize not everyone wants to come to overpriced and underwhelming Key West!
Cayo Dave said "The previous commenter may be content to enjoy their own backyard, but most Americans (and the rest of the globe) want to vacation away from home - visit new places, or favorite places, and enrich their lifes' experiences."
Uh last time I looked you can visit favorite places and enrich your life experiences anywhere from your own town, your own county, your own state even your own neighborhood with family and friends. Why leave home when you have it all there at little or no cost?
Enjoy life where you live - as Dorothy would say in the Wizard of Oz, the next time you are looking for your heart's content, you have to go no farther than your own backyard. If it isn't there, it isn't anywhere.
Geez Cayo Dave when will you wake up and realize not everyone wants to come to overpriced and underwhelming Key West!
Actually, with the big drop in hotel rates, Key West is not overpriced. Good luck catching a bonefish in your backyard. LOL.
If you are so unhappy with Key West, then don't visit or live here. But for the rest of the world, this place is still full of magic, fun, creativity, relaxation, and tonic for our otherwise hectic lives.
Why leave home when you have it all there at little or no cost?
Seriously? You have it all there? Bonefish? Beaches? Coral reefs? Revelry?
I'd say you've been sniffing your own lawn clippings too much.
You sure your kids don't want to go to the beach? Swim in the ocean? Meet new people? Have FUN?
I guess Cayo Dave must work in the tourism industy otherwise he would realize Key West is no bargain at anytime - not when there are so many cheaper places in Florida to visit with the same amenities and more!
As a frequent traveler and an upcoming visitor to Key West, I've found the comments on this blog very interesting, especially in regards to the "identity" of the island in the tourism marketplace. As a tourism consumer, it seems to me that the uniqueness of its character and identity is the island's chief "selling point" in that marketplace. Attempts to homogenize it with casinos or to refine too much its rough-hewn reputation with calls to cater to the "uber-rich" tourist would likely be costly mistakes. Key West's continuing appeal has been stated in the Captain Morgan's Rum commercials -- "There's a little pirate in all of us." Give us a little fine wine and treasure, but make sure we can flaunt the corporate marketplace and feel a little like bad boys and girls while we're spending our tourist dollars.
Regarding this particular post and its comments, Key West is obviously not competing with the non-traveling "stay-vay" this year. But, while the tourism numbers will be down, there are still travelers for which Key West competes. Which tourism choice lost my family to Key West this year? Cruises. I think this could be a great ad campaign for the island -- the advantages of Key West over cruises. No passport/customs hubbub. Unstructured time. Great "day trips". If the cruise ships don't dock at Key West as much as they once did, why not make the island itself the "cruise ship"?
Thanks for the blog!
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