This area features high-end communities such as Grande Dunes, oceanfront condos all along The Strand, family neighborhoods in Carolina Forest, and everything in between. The area continues to grow and change, bringing forth new communities to fill the populations needs, like The Market Common and Withers Preserve. A new concept to Myrtle Beach, The Market Common is a downtown like neighborhood, complete with residential, retail, dining, and shopping spaces. Withers Preserve is a development of contrasting communities adjacent to The Market Common, offering residences a variety of home styles to choose from.

With over 100 golf courses in the area, there are plenty of golf course communities making Myrtle Beach a golfers paradise. World class courses are playable year round, and there are plenty of properties available for the avid player.  If waking up to the sound of the ocean waves crashing and taking only steps to the sand is your idea of heaven, then Myrtle Beach may just be the next place you call home.  Myrtle Beach offers a wide range of fantastic oceanfront homes and condos. Condominiums in our area offer amenities to owners such as indoor and outdoor swimming, onsite restaurants and bars, rental programs, and more.

Learn more about real estate on the Grand Strand by visiting the Myrtle Beach Real Estate website.

Myrtle Beach Hotels and Condos rates the top five area beachfronts for guests on Myrtle Beach vacations. This rating system, however, in no way gives merit to or takes merit from any area Myrtle Beach Resorts.

Myrtle Beach Hotels and Condos is simply rating the Oceanfront area itself. Our criteria for our rating system includes:

• Traffic Congestion on highways in the area
• Beach Congestion by humans bathing on the beach itself
• Water purity ratings as reported by Government agencies
• Beach front Aesthetics (which can be subjective)

1. Huntington Beach State Park Map of Huntington Beach State Park area

Reasons: This area has absolutely no development on it at all. The beaches are private and out of the way. The natural results are uncommonly quiet and natural beaches.

Consistently the highest water quality ratings from state government agencies.

Huntington Beach State Park has little artificial lighting in the area and has no jet skis, banner planes, or near the shore ocean traffic. You will only find natural things on this Oceanfront Beach.

2.Surfside Beach from 3rd Avenue North through Garden City Beach to Inlet Point Drive

Three reasons why:

This area has few hotels and is lined with beach homes. The natural results are less congested beaches.

Consistently high water quality ratings from state government agencies.

These beaches are not as cluttered with jet skis, banner planes, and near the shore ocean traffic.

3. Myrtle Beach from 82nd Avenue North to 29th Avenue North

Reasons:

This stretch of Oceanfront in Myrtle Beach is known as the Golden Mile. It has less traffic, is lined largely with Oceanfront Beach Home rentals, and has fewer people on the beach itself.

There will be life guard stands and some vendors and a few high rise hotels, but water quality is consistently high.

Banner Planes do fly overhead in the Summer promoting products and local stores, but Parasailing and Jet Skis in this area are rare.

4. 46th Avenue South in North Myrtle Beach at Barefoot Resort

Reasons:

Private Oceanfront Beaches with largely only Barefoot Resort Customers and North Beach Plantation Customers.

Consistently High Water Quality

Barefoot Resort shuttles guests to the beach. When staying at Barefoot Resort with its shops and attractions, there is no need for a use of your car, which cuts down on Highway Traffic.

5. Oak Island, North Carolina: Oak Island Map
Reasons:

“Mayberry meets Jimmy Buffet!” Traffic in and out can be harsh on turnover days, but once there, traffic issues are mild.

Banner Planes are outlawed and the beach front is largely filled with Houses for rent. The natural results are less crowded beaches and more privacy.

The beach front atmosphere feels like the recent past, before high rises and mega anythings.

Water quality on this beach is excellent.

The City of North Myrtle Beach celebrated it’s fortieth year of incorporation on Wednesday, May 7, 2008. North Myrtle Beach Hotels including Prince Resort, Avista Resort, Barefoot Resort, and North Beach Plantation were not even envisioned as possible in 1968 when the world was focused on Vietnam, The Democratic Convention, the Summer of Love, and Civil Rights was a major dividing issue.

The city featured tours to the public throughout the day and video interviews at city hall. A special ceremony was held celebrating pioneers like the Tilghman family and Brian Floyd for the many contributions they had made to the city.

City tours included City Hall, the five fire stations, the Public Safety Building, Support Services, the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center and the all new Aquatic & Fitness Center. The North Myrtle Beach memorial ceremony included the color guard, an invocation, remarks by Mayor Marilyn Hatley, and remarks by some former mayors of the City and other North Myrtle Beach dignitaries.

In the past fourteen years, North Myrtle Beach has seen an explosion in Oceanfront North Myrtle Beach Hotels and North Myrtle Beach Condo development. Properties including Ashworth, Windy Hill Dunes, Prince Resort, Laguna Keyes, Barefoot Resort, North Beach Plantation, Avista, North Shore Villas, Tilghman Beach and Racquet Club, and Ocean Drive Resort have all sprung up on what was once older oceanfront beach home rentals. The highrise hotels now dot the landscape from one end of North Myrtle Beach to the Southern most portion. Also mall development, Barefoot Landing, Tanger outlets, and 4 World class golf courses have been added to the city.

The City of North Myrtle Beach formed in 1968 when four smaller beach towns including Cherry Grove Beach, Ocean Drive Beach, Crescent Beach and Windy Hill Beach were consolidated into one larger city. North Myrtle Beach features 14.81 square miles with nine miles of Oceanfront beaches, including the Meyer Baba community that has several miles of completely undeveloped Oceanfront.

North Myrtle Beach, SC operates under a council-manager form of city government. The city statics represent 13,000 year-round residents, over 30,000 room nights from hotels, beach home rentals, and condos and receives almost 3.5 million tourists each year largely from the Northeast and Southeastern United States.

Myrtle Beach Hotels on the South end of Myrtle Beach, SC said good-bye to Chick Ammons of the Sea Mist Resort on February 5, 2008.

For over 3 decades, Chick had seen the resort grow as it was first managed by her father Jason, then her brother Neal, and in the recent few years her nieces and their husbands.

Chick was a free Spirit who threw legendary parties at the Sea Oats and Tides pools of the Sea Mist Resorts Oceanfront area. Her friends loved her and she lived life with a full heart. She was 53 years old.

She leaves behind her brother Steve, Neal, and Neal’s ex-wife Margaret and Margaret’s two children.

In the recent past, the Sea Mist Resort has worked to convert to a property management firm like so many other Ocean Front Myrtle Beach Hotels on the South end of town. A slowing economy and a precipitous drop in the real estate market has created a slow transition period for the resort in this area. Over ninety percent of the resort is still family owned with most of the rooms, suites, and condos privately owned by the remaining Ammons family.

Myrtle Beach Hotels and Condos wishes her family our condolences and the best. Chick lived a colorful life and she will be missed in Myrtle Beach. She fought a hard battle against cancer and she embody God’s grace in the last months of her time on Earth with us.

Myrtle Beach Hotels saw numbers dip across the board for golf related business in the first quarter of 2008. The months of January, February, and March revealed a significant change in the way the golf business in Myrtle Beach, SC has evolved.

While overall numbers were down, Myrtle Beach Hotels that were leveraged on the internet and targeted for key golf terms, like Myrtle Beach Golf, on the search engines actually saw increases in rounds. At this same time, independent Myrtle Beach Hotels who have not leveraged their website properties, experienced round decreases that neared the point of little or no business.

“We literally are entering the period in Myrtle Beach where we will come to see the haves and the have nots.” said Dan Wenzel, Marketing Director for Myrtle-Beach.com, a local advertising firm. “This is consistent with what is happening all across America,” Wenzel added. “Myrtle Beach Hotels that have planned and that respond to changing markets are growing, while those that do not focus on systematic change are finding themselves without a customer base. The internet has truly changed the world and we are witnessing it first hand.”

Numbers show that companies like the Myrtle Beach National company and Burroughs and Chapin continue to grow in rounds played at their golf courses and room night increases in their Myrtle Beach Hotels and condos, while independent hotels are disappearing from the Myrtle Beach golf market.

While we are not sure if this is because of a lack of interest or a lack of focus, independent Myrtle Beach Hotels will need to investigate whether weekend tourists and weekly Summer business can keep their hotel model in the black. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, many Myrtle Beach Hotels wisely merged with, partnered with, or simply bought out local golf courses. These same hotels in Myrtle Beach then began agressively marketing specials that independents simply could not offer.

As John Wooten, the famous UCLA coach always said, “Those who fail to plan can plan to fail.” It appears that this holds true with Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Hotels and the Myrtle Beach golf vacation business.

The days of economies of scale are not coming, the numbers indicate that they are here for all Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels and that the jury is in on who won and who lost.

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels, like BayView Hotel, that rent to teenage guests or college students can find themselves in peril when these guests drink and make poor choices associated with underage drinking.

While many Myrtle Beach Hotels will not rent to adults under the age of 25, some who do can find the entire resort at risk.

The following is an incident reported in the Spring of 2008 by the Sun News concerning Bay View Hotel and a teenage guest who fell from the high rise hotel after becoming intoxicated.

Charlotte teen falls from Myrtle Beach hotel balcony
18-year-old told police he was intoxicated
KURT KNAPEK
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach)

A Charlotte teenager remained hospitalized Thursday, one day after falling two floors at the Bayview Motel in Myrtle Beach, according to a police report.

The 18-year-old was taken to the surgical intensive care unit of Grand Strand Regional Medical Center with serious injuries, said detective Carol Allen of the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

The teen, who told police he was intoxicated, had a crushed knee cap, bleeding in the brain, and several bumps and bruises, Allen said.

“He lost his footing and fell,” Allen said. “It could be a long road to recovery.”

Police found fingerprints and footprints on window ledges in a 12th-floor room and blood on a window ledge in a 10th-floor room at the hotel, located at 504 N. Ocean Blvd., according to a report.

The teen landed on the 10th floor, Allen said.

He is the second person to fall from a hotel this week on the Grand Strand.

A Largo, Fla., woman died Monday morning after falling from a 16th-floor hotel balcony onto a roof covering the resort’s pool.

Bonnie Hoff, 54, died Monday at the Sands Ocean Club Resort, said Horry County Coroner Robert Edge.

She was found by a hotel guest, who alerted hotel security, authorities said.

The investigation into what caused her fall is ongoing, Sgt. Bob Carr of the Horry County Police Department said Thursday.

Myrtle Beach Hotels and Resorts up and down the Myrtle Beach, S.C. coast experienced a soft Spring 2009 rental season. Many smaller hotels in Myrtle Beach are also nervous about the upcoming summer. With gas prices unsteady, and low consumer confidence, the Myrtle Beach area chamber of commerce and most tourism related businesses are banking on the possibility that consumers will do what elected officials have predicted – purchase a last minute vacation with this year’s May tax rebate check.

“We’re hoping that’s the case,” said Ferrell Schmidt, owner of the Carnival Motor Inn on 25th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach. “We’re hoping that as people start to see the checks … they’ll look at that as windfall money. The vacation they may not have taken may come about at that point.”

Most Americans will get a rebate check as follows – $600 per person, or $1,200 per couple, plus $300 per child younger than 17. These refunds are based on income levels.

Myrtle Beach Hotels typically contribute $5 billion in tourism when coupled with restaurants, shopping, and attractions. Many area resorts saw traffic down by as much as 38% during the March 23rd Easter Weekend. The Sun News, a local newspaper, reported, “Hotel and lodging business was down by 16 percent from March 9 through April 19 this year compared with the same period last year, according to a survey from Coastal Carolina University’s Brittain Center for Resort Tourism.”

“March and April have been somewhat of a disappointment,” said Bob Barenberg, general manager at Kingston Plantation. “A lot of it’s weather driven, and you can really tell. If the weather forecast is good, man, you get an influx of business and it’s terrific.”

Dan Wenzel, Marketing Director for Myrtle-Beach.com confirmed these remarks. “Hotel business across the board has been soft this Spring,” Wenzel said. “Hit hardest are small and dated hotels in Myrtle Beach that have not adopted new condo hotel concepts.” “People simply have more information at their disposal now, and, through the internet and are making choices based on consumer rated reviews.”

With such a poor economy, top concerns for tourists are uncertain gas prices and just paying month to month expenses.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce reported in a survey last week that 71% of families likely to travel in the next year stated that higher fuel costs would affect or have affected their Myrtle Beach vacation plans. This number compares to a historic 25 percent to 35 percent in past chamber’s surveys. “We’ve never seen it this high,” chamber President Brad Dean declared.

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels are certainly feeling the squeeze. “We’re not as busy as we were before the gas prices went up,” said Deborah Gowans, owner of the Royal Inn in downtown Myrtle Beach. Vacationers “could go to so many other beaches.”

Schmidt said, “When added up, the extra buck a gallon can be $2,000 for the year. That’s a vacation! “It’s going to affect the middle- to lower-middle-income people the hardest.” The chamber, in its most recent e-mail to more than 1 million people, targeted the rebate with an inclusion titled “Earn a Great Vacation Return on Your Tax Refund or Economic Stimulus Rebate Check.”

Don Schunk, a research economist with Coastal Carolina University, stated, “A lot of people are of the opinion that saving and paying off debt with this check is sort of the right thing to do.” “The right answer, when you’re taking a survey, is to say you’re going to do something real rational.” “That’s not always the way things work out”, he said. “One of the things that keeps happening over and over again in the U.S. economy is consumers figure out a way to do the things they want to do,” he said. “This tax rebate check feeds in perfectly to that. I think it’s going to really help households take the trips they want to take this summer.”

________________________________________
The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce surveyed travelers from outside the Carolinas to see what factors affected or may affect their travel plans this year.
Which of these factors have impacted or may affect your 2008 travel plans?
Rising fuel prices | 71 percent
Decrease in disposable Income | 49 percent
Time availability | 42 percent
Non-credit-card debt | 26 percent
Credit card debt | 25 percent
Weather concerns | 20 percent
Unemployment | 17 percent
For those that indicated fuel prices are a concern, they were asked how this would affect their plans:
Shorten the duration of travel | 31 percent
Stay closer to home | 51 percent
Spend less on food | 25 percent
Spend less on attractions | 41 percent
Spend less on shopping | 49 percent ]]> http://www.myrtlebeachhotelcondo.com/news/myrtle-beach-hotels-hope-for-bounce-2009-01-21.html/feed 0 http://www.myrtlebeachhotelcondo.com/news/sandy-beach-resort-hotel-opens-2009-01-21.html http://www.myrtlebeachhotelcondo.com/news/sandy-beach-resort-hotel-opens-2009-01-21.html#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:19:58 +0000 admin http://www.myrtlebeachhotelcondo.com/news/?page_id=62

Myrtle Beach Hotels like the all new Oceanfront Sandy Beach Resorts Hotel are rare and exceptional. The Sandy Beach Resort opened its doors to its new Oceanfront Condos Towers in November 2007. Offering one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom oceanfront condos, Sandy Beach Resort features an elegant lobby experience and premium luxury Myrtle Beach vacations.

The location of Sandy Beach Resort Hotel really helps the property as well. Located right at the Family Kingdom Amusement park, Sandy Beach Resort is one of the closest Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels to the all new Hard Rock Theme Park.

Hard Rock Park opens in May 2008. A drive from Hard Rock Park to the Sandy Beach Resort is a snap. Just take George Bishop Parkway North to the 501 East exit. Heading east on 501, take the 3rd Avenue South extension exit on your right. Follow this road to where it ends on Ocean Boulevard. The Oceanfront Sandy Beach Resort will be directly ahead on your left on Ocean Boulevard.

At the oceanfront resort, your Myrtle Beach vacations can include Myrtle Beach Parasailing Oceanfront, Oceanfront Jet Ski Rentals, and an opportunity to ride a Myrtle Beach legend in the Swamp Fox Roller Coaster. The Swamp Fox is one of the few remaining woodie Roller Coasters in America.

The availability of Condos in Myrtle Beach have increased to an all time high as of October 30, 2008. Myrtle Beach Real Estate sales have cooled to the point of almost stopping this Fall and occupancy rates per each Myrtle Beach condo have reflected the influx of new construction.

With the Summer 2009 season months away, occupancy rates in June will be a measuring stick to see how all of the new construction will affect the Myrtle Beach condo rentals business.

With a trend toward increased 3 night rentals, the Myrtle Beach Condo rentals industry will need to come up with creative ideas to find market share in a increasingly competitive industry.

Offering 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 4 bedroom hotel suites and condos on the Oceanfront, Anderson Ocean Club should be a natural hit for Myrtle Beach vacations in downtown Myrtle Beach,SC.

The Anderson Ocean Club also offers Magnolias Restaurant on site at the hotel just across Ocean Boulevard. This is among the most appreciated Myrtle Beach Restaurants by locals and can often be standing room only on Sundays after church has ended.

With the closing of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion in 2006, this downtown location has seen many changes and few upgrades in Myrtle Beach Hotels since the late 1990s. Anderson Ocean Club is a welcome addition to this downtown area and should stand out as one of the most popular Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels as far as summer Myrtle Beach vacations are concerned.

Learn more about Anderson Ocean Club on MyrtleBeachLuxuryRentals.com.