Jersey Shore Business Journal

April 02, 2008

GWHMA negotiates shorter deal with Comcast

WILDWOOD—The Greater Wildwood Hotel and Motel Association has negotiated a one-year contract with Comcast instead of a five-year standard renewal that Comcast originally required.
The one-year agreement was negotiated for GWHMA members based on Comcast’s uncertainty in regard to how commercial accounts would be handled during the transition from an analog to a digital signal, according to Steve Tecco, president of the association.
The signal change will take place next February. Currently, a conversion box is available from Comcast for residential sets at $5 a month.
Five-year contracts have expired for about 30 percent of the hotels and motels on the island and others are scheduled to expire on a staggered basis within the next few years, Tecco said.
“On behalf of our members on Five Mile Beach, the association has been negotiating with Comcast for some time to determine what the commercial cost would be when the signal changes,” said Tecco. “It is unclear what the final cost would be and how services would be affected, if at all. In light of current uncertainties, we thought a five-year contract renewal was not in the best interests of our members.”
Meanwhile, the hotels and motels whose contracts currently expire will function under basically the old contract for one year.
“We do not want to be locked into a five-year contract without knowing what the new cost will be beyond year one,” said Tecco.
He added that the association decided to take on this project as a group because it believed it would bear more weight than if individual motels or hotels assumed the role. He has been meeting with Comcast officials for five months and the dialogue will continue in the months ahead, he said.
The Greater Wildwood Hotel and Motel Association, formed in 1944, has a membership of 160 hotels and motels and 180 other businesses. Its purpose is to encourage tourism on the island through Five Mile Beach’s hotels and motels and other businesses and to serve the interests of those tourism facilities. It sponsors several special events throughout the year as part of its goal.