Hotel Rates Remain Grounded at LAX as They Soar in Region

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For Los Angeles visitors looking for a deal, here’s a hint stay at an airport hotel.


These hotels have the lowest room prices in the county, and they haven’t been soaring despite airport travel rebounding to levels not seen since before 9/11.


The average daily room rate inched up 1.5 percent to $78.27 in the January-March quarter, the lowest rate in the county, according to PKF Consulting. At that price, a night at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport costs less than staying in Whittier, where the average room rate is $81.51.


“We are not seeing major, major rate increases,” said Chris Stampe, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance Montura Hotel Los Angeles.


It isn’t that airport hotels aren’t full. As a group, occupancy tops 81 percent for the quarter, not far behind the highest occupancy rate in the county 82 percent in Pasadena.


But airport hotels have a big disadvantage: they commit to lodge airline employees at lower rates than most guests pay. Airlines, for instance, typically negotiate one- to two-year contracts with hotels for lodging crew members at rates significantly under those paid by business travelers.


Crew rates are about $45 per night at an airport hotel, according to Stampe, while the benchmark rate the rate paid by a business traveler runs from $169 to $199 per night. On a given night, a crew can occupy up to 80 rooms.


Airport hotels are renegotiating their airline contracts to push up crew rates. Stampe said that Renaissance dropped its crew business altogether last year and is tipping the guest balance to higher paying travelers such as government workers and convention guests. Projections are that LAX-area rates will go up about 3 percent this year.



Couture Cooks


If the marker of a trend is movement from the coasts to the country’s center, then hiring private chefs is a trend.


Private Chefs Inc., a Beverly Hills agency that places private chefs in residences, recently opened an office in Dallas. Private Chefs also is planning offices in Moscow and the Middle East in the next year.


“Everybody has become a lot more attuned to what they put in their body,” said Christian Paier, the company’s president and founder. “There (also) are a lot more wealthy people.”


Paier said his 10-year-old business has been doubling in size every year for the last five years. Two years ago, he opened his first office outside of Beverly Hills in Palm Beach, and he now has five offices representing 1,300 chefs worldwide.


Most of the chefs are full-time and cost from $55,000 to $150,000 per year, with the company taking a 10- to 20-percent cut of the fee.



Quiksilver Gold


Quiksilver Inc. may epitomize skater and surf wear hip, but it’s also becoming pure Middle America.


The Huntington Beach-based clothing manufacturer recently signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Kohl’s Corp. to carry its Tony Hawk line of clothing.


The line, which Quiksilver bought in 2000, will be available in Kohl’s 670 stores in 40 states starting in 2006, with Quiksilver designing the clothes and accessories.


The label was founded by skateboarding icon Hawk, who was ranked the world’s No. 1 vertical ramp skateboarder from 1984 to 1996 and has major marketing appeal to the skater crowd (and wannabes). Now it will be marketed to young males nationwide.


“The continued growth of the board-riding lifestyle has strengthened both our brand and industry’s position in mainstream culture,” Bob McKnight, Quiksilver’s chief executive, said in a statement.



*Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or by e-mail at

[email protected]

. Orange County Business Journal reporter Jennifer Bellantonio contributed to this column.

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