Prices up?

[pratoman]

Is it me, or are prices going higher?
I go down every year the last Thursday in July and return the second Monday in August.
Last year at this time, if i remember correctly, i booked at $275 a night, and ultimately rebooked at $232 when prices came down a few months later. This was the AAA rate for a Garden View at the Marriott Stellaris.

This year, the same room, AAA rate, for the same dates, is listed at $322.

And it seems JBLU airfare is higher too.
Am i missing something? Maybe my memory is wrong? I know i pai $232 last year for the room. Is Aruba just getting too popular? I would hate to be priced out, been going there for 35 years.

[paulmorin]

I love aruba and the arubans but I do think they're milking the tourists as much as possible.

[DaveNJodie]

We had not been in two years and we are fairly shocked at how the prices in Aruba have increased. Not only are airfares and hotel rooms more expensive, but restaurants that were reasonable a few years ago are now much more expensive. For example, a few years ago you could easily find a burger and fries at one of the hotel pool areas for $7.50 to $8.50 and now, you can't find one for much less than $12.00. We have also noticed that some places, like Iguana Joe's, have reduced the portions of many of their dinners.

[Andrea J.]

the resorts will price what the market can bear.
and the airlines............well they compete with each other and again will price accordingly.

and the larger resorts.......marriott, radisson, hyatt, westin are all american companies.
and the airlines.......JB, AA, USAIr, AIRTRAN/SWA etc all american owned companies. one of our members here, works for an airline. i wonder if his airline is sharing the profits with him, i doubt it.

so as far as aruba milking the tourists, we have to look at the big picture too and see that it is transportation and housing that have gone up big time.

the arubans.........well, taxi fares went up by a dollar or 2 in 2009 and look at the price of gasoline. that increase did nothing to help the taxi owner/drivers bottom line. they still sruggle.

the restaurants.... some of the restaurants have gone up a lot, ex: tony roma used to be a place where my husband really loved to get ribs and chicken. they priced themselves out of competition and other places have much better meals. (an american company)
MJs has gone up some in prices as have lots of others over the past 2 years.
most, maybe 10% is my guess.
but, we all know what has gone on in the grocery stores here in the usa over the past year.......huge increases.

respectfully, i blame corporate america for the higher hotel and air.

many people in this world preface the word american with the word "rich" american. and i shake my head in disgust.

sorry for my editorializing.

[kemperato]

we have purchased our airfare for May at this time of year for past 4 years. First 3 years, it increased steadily and reasonably by approx $20 each year. This year it has jumped up over $100 higher per ticket than last year. Very discouraging :-/

[Arubalisa]

Haven't prices gone up everywhere? Our family surely pays more now for a dinner out or even take out pizza than we did a few years ago. Going to grocery store and seeing the rising prices there, it is only understandable why a restaurant would be charging higher prices.

As to airlines, it comes down to two important factors, airfares and competition. For less expensive airfares, fly out of an airport where there are a number of carriers flying to Aruba.

I hate to disagree with Andrea but the airlines are sharing their profits-- with their shareholders...When the price of jet fuel is higher, the airlines make less money. They can only charge airfares that the market will bear.

Which leads to the end result, the more of a demand for airplane seats and hotel rooms in Aruba, the higher the prices will be. Again, supply and demand and competition will determine the price.

[Randi]

We noticed that in January when we were booking our flights for this December the priced had jumped about $100 a ticket. Also a family member was looking to rent a week off redweek and I noticed that this year week 51 and 52 were priced higher than in the past few years.

Four years ago when the economy in the US took a big hit the prices on flights really went down as people didn't have the money to travel. The Surf Club seemed far less crowded as the rooms were all full but instead of 8 ppl per room there was 4 or 6 and deals on rooms and airfare were absolutely amazing. Slowly the prices have started to creep back to what they were around 2007/2008.

[Andrea J.]

i like it when we disagree.
my point is re: the airlines, they are bringing in extra $ from their extra collected fees...
maybe passing them on the their stockholders, but not the employees.

[Arubalisa]

10-dollar tax per ticket to Aruba

http://amigoe.com/english/92065-10-d...icket-to-aruba

[Andrea J.]

argh :-(

Originally Posted by Arubalisa

10-dollar tax per ticket to Aruba

http://amigoe.com/english/92065-10-d...icket-to-aruba