Milford chronicle., 1956-07-27

longer-staying guests. In the
mountains, early-season occupancy
frequently runs higher in motels
than in some of the larger hotels
and guest houses. The newer mo-
tells are more pretentious affairs
than those built a few years ago.
Some of them even provide swim
ming pools and other recreational
facilities approaching those offered
by the old established hotels. An
other measure of motel popula1tv
is the fact that many of theri have
found it necessary to add a sub
stantial number of units this past
year.
Rates and rentals about the
same as last season. Neither hotel
rates nor cottage rentals are show
ing much change this year. Early
and late season concessions, to be
sure, are standard practice in many
places and for 1856 the usual pat
tern seems to prevail Most of our
resorts still are experiencing
growing pains" in response to the
increasing demand for accomo-
dations. But with new motels COM
ing in and summer cottage con-
struction continuing a relatively
high levels, available facilities even
at the peak season have kept just
enough ahead of the demand to
relieve any serious pressure for
rate advances. Surprising as it may
seem, motel rates in many places
are very little lower than in the
hotels. In the case of some of the
more pretentious motels, rates are
comparable with the first-class ho-
tells.
Restaurant business has been a
little slow starting. The too-cool,
too-wet, week-ends this spring did
nothing to help the early-season
restaurant business at any of the
resort areas in this district. But this
is not unusual experience and most
proprietors feel that good summer
time receipts will offset much of
the lag. Since mid-June, patronage
has increased steadily and the
spending pattern of customers ap-
pears about as liberal as in the
1855 season. Competition in this
area of the vacation business is in
creasing, perhaps more so than in
some others. However, weekend
crowds still tax the capacity of
restaurants in most resorts, so their
owners don't complain too much
when there is no lineup of patrons
waiting to be served during the
week.
Amusements are getting their
share now. Spending on amuse-
ments and for other forms of recre-
alton also is said to be running
close to a year ago, and the 1885
season was a good one. Early sea-
son weekend receipts were not on
par with last year, but in that
respect last year was almost phe-
nomenal. In 1855, Memorial Day
was a three-day affair; Indepen-
dence Day was another. And in
between were some of the finest
week-ends, weatherwise that have
turned up in long time. But in
one sector of the amusement field
the so-called games of chance"
that dot the boardwalks along the
New Jersey Coast-concession own
ers are most unhappy because of
State Supreme Court ruling out
lawing such games.
Retail volume has been holding
up well. Merchants in both noun
tain and seashore vacation areas
report retail sales increasing sea-
sonally from generally satisfactory
levels prevailing through May and
June. In gift shops, however, sales
got off to a late start, owing to
unfavorable weather on several
early week-ends Stores carrying a
more general type of merchandise
also found that strictly seasonal
items were moving more slowly
than a year ago, although more
staple lines were in strong demand.
Many of our shore resorts have
been experiencing a stady growth
in their year-round population
principally retired people who have
moved down from the larger cities.
This segment of the local popula-
tion has contributed greatly to the
stability of retail sales in off-seas-
son periods. Virtually all retailers
seem to feel that July and very
likely early August sales will mea-
sure up to the high levels reached
in 1855.
Weather is a factor that is hard
TO measure. Since the experience
of last August-hurrican and
threats of hurricanes at the shore
and a devastating flood in parts of
the os-businessmen in re-
sort areas will Ibe watching the
,ate-season weather pattern with
much more than passing interest.
That is not to say that August wea-
ther might make or break them.
But a good month this year would
go far toward offsetting the sea-
sons late start and the fact that the
two summer holiday week-ends
were short ones. Some appear to
feel that vacationists have become
overly conscious of the weather.
Others think that summertime visi-
tors, having grown more accus-
toned to "blow-by- blow" reports
of approaching storms, will take
them more in stride, as was the
case when most disturbances were
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