Several Palm Springs hotel and motel executives say they have received responses to thousands of text messages sent last week promoting spring break in the city.
The hotel has booked 16 reservations since the promotion started last week, Barnett said.
The Hyatt started its own spring break promotion at the beginning of the year, but the text messages have been making a small impact, Barnett said
“We are certainly seeing higher than usual returns,” Barnett said.
Tourism officials sent out 55,000 text messages urging young adults from Santa Barbara to San Diego to spend some time in Palm Springs. They hope to rekindle a warmer relationship with the college-age spring break crowd that used to visit Palm Springs more than 20 years ago.
For most California schools, spring break begins either this week or next week. Universities nationwide in February repeated the U.S. State Department’s message to students, warning them to stay away from Mexico because of escalating drug-related violence in area typically visited during spring break.
Other hotels said its too early to tell if the promotion will bring in more business.
“People are starting to call and check on rates,” said Mike Lewis, manager of Palm Springs Travelodge. He said a fraternity called and inquired about renting six rooms, but there have been no bookings.
The general manager of the downtown Palm Springs Motel 6, on the other hand, said it has not received any inquiries.
“We haven’t really had much of anything,” said general manager Bill Williams, adding that he expects more next week.
There have been thousands of hits at www.palmspringsbreak.com, the site
established by the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism to encourage students to
visit Palm Springs during spring break, but a bureau official said it was too
early to tell if the site was leading to an increase in room reservations.
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