Hotels in Monterey fully staffed and ready for Car Week

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) - Hotel staff will be hustling along the Monterey Peninsula ahead of Monterey Car Week.

The annual event brings hundreds, if not thousands, of people to the Central Coast.

"We are well-prepared and we're ready for car week," said Stefan Lorch with the Monterey Marriott

Although many guests will be stepping into the Marriott this weekend, the Monterey Bay Lodge may not be seeing as much foot traffic.

"We're actually down a quite large percentage this year opposed to last year." said Cala Morrison, the General Manager for Monterey Bay Lodge.

Morrison says over the last three years, over 90 percent of their rooms were booked during car week.

This year, more than half of their rooms are vacant.

"We have about 45% occupancy left to sell. So, and we do have an average daily rate of $100 more than last year," said Morrison.

Although Morrison says it's surprising that on one of Monterey's busiest weeks, people are not checking into her hotel.

However, in 2021 the average price for a room was around $280 a night.

This year, it has nearly doubled at about $526.

"I think it's because of inflation and everything. First, we had that Covid-19 and all of that and then the inflation went up and it's just too many things are hitting at one time. and that of course is going to affect people in other areas," said Morrison.

Although last year some hotels were laying people off, this year both hotels say they are fully staffed and ready for car week.

Car week this year will start on Friday at 5p.m. and extend into the following weekend.