The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Long Island resort is predicting that its room nights will be down almost 50 percent year-over-year for July after generating business via its social media platform.

Matthew Brear, general manger of Cape Santa Maria, told Tribune Business: "We're kind of in a holding pattern at the moment. I was surprised to hear when the Prime Minister announced that we would be opening on July 1.

"I was happy and encouraged that that was the case, and we had reservations on the books already for the month of July, so I figured we could build on those. Since I have announced on all of my social media platforms that we will be opening July 1, I picked up 150 to 200 room nights for the month of July."

Mr Brear added: "Last July we had over 700 room nights, and this July we might have about 375 room nights. It's going to hurt, but it's better than nothing, and it is better than staying closed and losing tens of thousands of dollars. We have fixed costs and things like that, but if we can at least break-even in the month of July that would be better than getting kicked while you are down.

"We do cater to a lot of private pilots that wouldn't be relying on commercial airlines anyhow. I would say that 25 percent to 30 percent of our guests are private pilots, but we do have other guests who travel with some of the smaller charters that charter from Nassau into Long Island, like Stella Maris air service and Island Wings and Southern Air.

"We were encouraged and we are excited, and it looks like we are going to have a very good month. We picked up a little flying group and a wedding at the very end of July into August."

Mr Brear, though, said he will close earlier than anticipated for the slower part of the tourism season because European travel is unlikely to rebound in time from COVID-19. He added that August is typically a busy month for Italian, French and German guests, and he said: "We were going to open July 1 and close on August 19. Typically we close at the end of August. We were looking forward to six busy weeks.

"But I don't know any more from what I heard from the deputy prime minister [K Peter Turnquest] about the hesitation to open on July 1. I hope that isn't true, because we have already cancelled March, April and May, the three busiest months of the year, and a lot of guests we just kept pushing ahead a month as the closure was extended and we didn't know exactly what was going on.

"So our plan is at the Cape to open July 1 and close on August 19, and then we will close for the storm season as we normally do, then reopen on November 1 again. That's the plan," continued Mr Brear. "I have managed to keep a handful of staff employed through the closure, just doing maintenance and maintain the garden and things like that.

"Because we are not running at our normal capacity, I would be probably bringing back most of the senior staff and we would be able to employ half of them. With the extension of National Insurance Board (NIB) unemployment benefit (UEB), it's kind of a toss up as far as my more junior crew - whether it is more worthwhile for them to just stay on the unemployment benefit for the month of July or come back on a very, very part time basis."

While Cape Santa Maria is projected to run a 25 percent occupancy rate for July, Mr Brear said this "really isn't that bad". He added: "But that means we would only be able to bring back 25 percent to 30 percent of my staff back on a significant basis anyway."