Hurting Hotels Spend 350K wrote on Nov 25, 2008 1:21 AM:Good for Howard-Jones - why doesn't article interview her. We don't know why she didn't vote YES with all the other board members? Poor hotel owners are hurting yet raised prices and saw INCREASES in tourists over last year? Homeowners lost HALF the value of their homes. Hmmm, guess tourists see Carlsbad (pay the bed tax) and don't want to LIVE here sfter a dip in the cold dirty water (smart to use the hotel pool), lack of ADA accessible 'old town Carlsbad', and hear locals complain about crime, schools, NIMBY'S and of course TRAFFIC! $350K? Geez, give CSBD residents $5 each - tell them to entice just ONE 'out of state' friend to visit / stay in a hotel - that would be over 100,000 'hotel beds' in 2009! Stimulus packages work! Advertisting in a downturned economy makes no sense at all. Oh, one more thing, this Bill Canega states
He said customers would be targeted in unusual ways."This is not the time to do the traditional things that we've been doing in marketing and get away with it," HUH? Get away with what? And WHAT are the UNUSUAL targeted ways? WE WANNA KNOW b4 we invite our friends to 'check out' paradise.

C wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:19 AM:hurting hotels?

Over Taxed wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:33 AM:With the increases in hotel and other tourist related costs over the years, I have scratched off Carlsbad as a place for me to spend vacation time. I almost feel like Carls bad has there hand in my pocket when i visit, so I choose to vacation elsewhere - where tourists are appreciated and not just over charged.

Typical City Pandering wrote on Nov 25, 2008 11:30 AM:So instead of flowing $350k into ACTUALLY making Carlsbad a better place, we are flowing $350k to a marketing agency to make it SEEM like a better place?

I'd like the city of Carlsbad to pay a little more attention to what it is like to live in Carlsbad and a little less about trying to get more folks from Arizona and beyond to visit Carlsbad.

I think if they could create a city that is as well cared for as a La Jolla or a Del Mar, the tourism will follow. Instead, we are learning of massive power plant add-ons and that the skate park may be cut. They've built an outrageously priced golf course that I can't afford to play. And, how about cheaping out on little things like standard recycling bins rather than these junky milk crates still being used in Carlsbad. Carlsbad needs help, and flushing money into the pockets of Mindgruve is not the way to go...

Dont blame me wrote on Nov 29, 2008 2:11 AM:I voted for Evan! This is exactly the kind of thing she campaigned against. She proposed low cost alternatives that made sense. Nearly 5000 of us voted for her, convinced Carlsbad would benefit from leaner leadership.

RU wrote on Nov 29, 2008 9:05 AM:Oh my God, the hotels are hurting? Wait a minute, guys ... aren't you the ones that brought us with all the featured add-ons to our bill when it was time to check out? Towels, room service, newspaper, resort fees, parking, use of television, phone calls, limited wipes of towlet paper per use, and the list of ridiculous fees and extras that the consumer neither wanted or needed didn't matter. The resort fee is a great one. Here, you're suppose to be checked into a resort hotel where the amenities, like a pool or workout room, have typically been part of the room bill. Over the last 7+ years since 9/11 that's not been the case. It has been one fee after another.

The question might be, "Where did all of your fat profits go?"

Hotels have sucked dry the consumer in every imaginable way possible. I guess they'll soon be lined up with the banks, auto, life insurance and oil companies, all asking for special treatment or bail out help.

Less is best, and in Carlsbad, we've somehow lost that with all the development that has taken place. Take a look at some of the premier properties, including the most recent addition on Cannon Road. Seems these guys were ready to rake in the big bucks off the backs of consumers when times were sloppy with profits. Now, it sounds like whining.

Maybe Carlsbad should increase the overnight bed tax another percent or two and use that for areas where the residents could really find benefit.

Enough is enough.

P.S. I didn't vote for Evan, but will certainly support her in the next go-around. She was a breath of fresh air, and I may toss one of my votes her way in two years, if she decides to hang in there.