PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. — Port Washington hotels are booking up fast, with visitors and workers competing for a limited number of rooms near the city's lakefront as Fish Days weekend approaches.
The Harborview on Lake Michigan, one of just two hotels near the city's main downtown corridor, is seeing some of its strongest demand in years. Owner Eric Lund said room rates and demand are both up close to 5 percent, with Fish Days weekend rates climbing above $300 through Choice Hotels.
"People who are going out on the charter fishing is the highest we've seen in many, many years," Lund said.
The surge is not limited to festival weekends. Lund said business from local companies, tourists from Chicago and visitors from Milwaukee has grown steadily.
The tighter availability is something visitors are already noticing. Kevin and Carolyn Heisel, who traveled to Port Washington from Iowa for a salmon fishing trip — a gift from their daughter — said extending their stay proved more difficult than expected. The couple, who typically vacation in Door County, said they wanted to spend an extra day exploring the city.
Watch: Visitors say finding a hotel room in Port Washington is getting harder
"We were fishing for salmon, and we were fairly successful," Kevin Heisel said. "We wanted to stay one more day here to look the town over, and it was hard to get that room."
Ongoing data center construction by Vantage Data Centers north of downtown is also filling rooms on weekdays, as workers on the project stay in the area throughout the week.
"Certainly Vantage helps that because it brings in people to the community, and on the weekends when they're not working, they're enjoying, they're shopping," Lund said. "So we're getting more business from the local businesses, the tourism coming from Chicago, and even in Milwaukee."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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