The Daytona gazette=news. (Daytona, Fla.) 1901-1922, 1907-03-16
HOTELS OF THE
EAST COAST.
- - -
Florida Entertains Over 100000 Wis
itOrs, Who Spend Twenty Million
Dollars Each Season.

William T. Curtis, the noted CORE
spondent of the Chicago Record1lerald,
furnishes the following interesting data
relative to the many hotels on the East
Coast and their capacity for entertaining
the hosts of visitors who flock to this
section to bask in our sunny cline each
winter:
1t would be interesting to know how
many tourists and health and pleasure
seekers come to Florida during the win
ter and how much money they spend.
1t is difficult to make more than :; rough
estimate. In Switzerland they can tell
almost to 4 mananda dollar, because
daily registers are published of arrivals
and the bank deposits ut the resorts
show exactly how much money Is taken
in; but there is no such system here,
and, consequently, no sound basis Tor Il
calculation We can get ut 1t i'll a sort
Of way, however. There are on the
East Coast Railway south OF Jackson
vile l6l hotels. There are twenty-four
in that city, accommodating from 20 t"
600 guests, respectively, or total OF
about 5000. At st. Augustine are
twenty-seven Of similar size that can
accommodate $500 people; at Palm
Beach there are fifteen with Il capacity
of 1000 guests; at Daytona thirty-one
with accommodations for from 20 to
200; Palatka and Ormond have seven
each with a capacity of 20 to 600, and
at Miami are twelve Of about the same
size.
The ISS hotels on the East Coast Rail
read can accommodate altogether not
less than %, 600 people, and there are
boarding houses in every town and VII
lage which charge from 81 a day up
ward. You can find list i'll one of the
railway advertising books giving the To-
cations, the names Of the proprietors,
the number of rooms and the charges
by day or week This year they have
all been filed and people have been
packed away on cots Last winter was
Il poor season; it was SO warm in the
north that people did not come SO far
south. The hotels at Washington were
crowded all wintor with people who
usually come to Florida. The winter OF
I9O4-5 was the banner scason-the most
profitable ever known, because 1t was
cold and stormy in the north, and 1t Is
estimated that more than POO, 900
strangers came into the state for pleas
ure or profit, and probably each one OF
them spent 500. That is low est
mate, because the railway fare from
Washington to Palm Beach is $50, with
out including sleeping berths. The total
for railway fare, board, amusements and
purchases must have aggregated Is
much as S2O,OO0,000 and it was I'M
doubtedly nearer $50, 000,0 900.
Mr.. Flagler can tell exactly how many
people are taken care of ut his hotels
because, as told you in a previous let
ter, he gets a report every morning
The capacity of his nine hotels Is as
follows:
Guests
Ponce de Leon, st. AuSustine........ 3OC
Alcazar, ST. st. Augustine.............. GOO
Continental, near Jacksonville--.----- BOG
Ormond, at Ormond..................--.... COO
The Breakers, Palm Beach...---.--.- GOO
Royal Poinciana, Palm Beach.......-l SOC
Royal Palm, Miami. 5OO
Colonial NaSsau...................... I0t
ROYAL Victoria, NaSsau..............-. 4OC
Total ,.....................5,7 zoe
Some of these hotels open in Deem
and the rest in January, and all OF
them close about the first of April, eX-
cept the Continental, which is sum
mer hotel for southern patronage on the
sea beach twenty miles from jackson
willie, and is open from March to Octo-
Der. The big Poineiana is open from
january 10 to March 81, an average o.
eighty days year, which is about the
Erme as all the rest.