Condo Prices Back Up to Pre-Spill Rates

If you want to book a view for your summer vacation, be ready to pay full price.
"We raised rates for 2010 and we had to do a lot of discounting anywhere from 50 to 20 percent. For 2011, although we haven't raised our rates, it's the normal rack rate and people are having some sticker shock," says Marie Curran with Brett Robinson Resorts.

Gone are the discounts from 2010. This season expect to pay five to 600 dollars for a four night stay this spring. That same stay this summer will cost you anywhere from a thousand to 12 hundred dollars. "They're calling, having paid forty percent less then what we are quoting them now. So there is a lot of price point hesitation."

A lot is riding on this tourist season. Early indicators predict a good one but not a record breaker.

"We feel pretty good about it." Marketing director for Gulf Shores-Orange Beach Tourism Mike Foster says they hope to have a tourism season like 2009. "It was a solid year. We fell so far from '09 in 10 that if we get back to '09 levels that is a great accomplishment for us."

Meanwhile, the phones have started ringing, as many as 600 calls a day at Brett Robinson, a little behind what they are used to but a good sign says Curran. "We used to say what could happen? What could go wrong? and now we sort of know."

What they don't know is how many will be around this summer to enjoy the view.

Results from a tourism research project is expected in a couple of weeks that should indicate whether Alabama's coastal communities have turned the corner in terms of attitudes towards the beach.