As the summer travel season nears, hotels in Los Angeles Koreatown have already surpassed 70 percent occupancy rate for their rooms in June.
According to the Korea Daily’s direct correspondence with hotels in the neighborhood this week, 73 percent of the available rooms across nine Koreatown hotels have already been booked on average throughout June. The likes of Hotel Normandie and Aventura Hotel already have 90 percent of their rooms fully booked next month.
The reason behind the sudden rise in reservations at hotels is because June is often the time of the year when travelers flock to the city from around the world. Sources close to the hospitality industry have said that more non-Korean travelers have been staying in Koreatown in recent years.
“The demand is only getting greater as there’s a Memorial Day weekend at the end of this month, followed by the summer vacation in June,” said an employee at JJ Grand Hotel. “We’re also starting to see more travelers who come to watch the Dodgers.”
An Oxford Palace Hotel employee added: “The promotion deals for the peak season has been attracting customers from months ago.”
A Hotel Normandie employee said, “The demand has been growing since we remodeled our property in 2013.”
For Koreans, they often book their rooms closer to their travel date. That is why hotels in Koreatown expect the reservations to only increase as they get closer to June.
“We’ve been attracting more non-Korean customers have we began taking online reservations,” said an employee at Oxford Palace Hotel. “Chinese, Hispanics, whites, blacks and other customers are coming to our hotel.”
In fact, the rate of non-Korean customers at Koreatown-based hotels, including Ramada, Aventura and Hotel Normandie, is reportedly around 70 to 80 percent.
While the rise of Airbnb has affected the traditional hotel industry in many parts of the country, sources say that Koreatown has relatively been unscathed from the change.
By Jiyoung Kim
