There are some vacation destination lists that Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau marketing director Debbie Meihls is pleased that Anna Maria Island failed to land in the top 10, or even the top 20.
Those lists for the best spring break vacation spots for college students are published online by tripadvisor.com and studentspringbreak.com, among others. Anna Maria Island failed to get a mention on either website.
“Those are two lists I’m glad we’re not on,” Meihls said with a laugh.
“We are not a typical spring-break destination for college students and we don’t want to be. We’re happy they go to Panama City, Daytona Beach or Fort Lauderdale. We are a family-oriented destination,” she said.
But that didn’t mean Island accommodation owners, managers and rental agents weren’t busy during spring breaks in March.
Schools across the country went on spring break in March, and many vacationing families found Anna Maria Island.
“We were booked solid the first week of March and in middle and late March,” said Jesse Brisson, accommodations manager for Gulf-Bay Realty in Holmes Beach.
“College kids on their own go to Panama Beach. The families on spring break come here,” he observed.
The influx of visitors to the Island continued throughout the month, he said.
Florida universities were on spring break in early March, while other schools were off from March 14-18. Many Midwest colleges choose March 21-25 for spring break, according to springbreak.com.
Brisson sold out every weekend last month except for two open days with a few units available.
February started a little slow for accommodation rentals, he said, but “March and April have certainly made up for the slow February start.”
March rentals were up about 20 percent from the same month last year, while April reservations are already “off the charts,” Brisson said. He expects April rentals to increase between 20 and 25 percent compared with April 2010.
“I can’t speak for everybody on the Island, but we went gangbusters during March, and April is even better.”
Likewise, Rebecca Barnett at AMI Accommodations in Anna Maria said there was a big boost in accommodation rentals during March, fueled by families on spring break.
Spring break wasn’t just the first week or second of March, she said. Rather, a number of schools had different spring-break weeks.
“Our spring break was families and it seemed that each week was a different spring break somewhere,” she said.
Houses with four to six bedrooms or more were in demand, and there were few days in March when any of the 240 properties rented by AMI Accommodations were not occupied.
“March was off the charts, and April is already looking extremely good for advance reservations, better than last year,” Barnett said. She predicted 100 percent occupancy for a number of days in April.
Even better news is that reservations for the summer months already are ahead of last year’s pace.
“We had the oil spill last year and that hurt a bit until people who had planned to go to the Panhandle came here,” Barnett said.
And reservations for summer are good, she said. “It’s great. We’ve already booked a lot of people for the summer.”
Hotel and condominium-unit rentals also soared in March.
“Our February was very good,” said David Teitelbaum of the Tradewinds, Seaside and Tortuga resorts in Bradenton Beach. He acknowledged that the month started out soft, but quickly improved as weather conditions up north became favorable for travel to the Island.
March, however, set new records for rentals, he said.
“March reservations were just incredible. We were handling hundreds of calls or e-mails every day from people looking for a room. We were booked solid all month.”
Those reservations were made by families, not college students looking for a party atmosphere.
“That’s definitely not the Island,” he said. “And we don’t want it to be the Island.”
March reservations were easily up 10 percent or more from March last year, Teitelbaum said, and April reservations are on a “hectic” pace, Teitelbaum said.
At the Bridgewalk Resort in Bradenton Beach, Angela Rodocker said February rentals were up 26 percent compared with February 2010.
March reservations, however, blew up the telephones, Rodocker indicated.
“We were up more than 35 percent in occupancy in March, and April is ahead of last year’s pace,” Rodocker said.
“It’s been amazing. It shows we have a great product in a great area. People love the Island and Bridge Street, and the (Historic) Bridge Street Pier has really become well known.”