Rehoboth Beach businesses indicate strong summer, expect strong fall

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – With labor day in the rearview, the summer season at the beach has unofficially come to a close, but that’s not stopping local businesses from feeling optimistic about the fall.

President of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, Carol Everhart, said in some ways, the Delaware beach town is actually busier after the end of summer: “If it isn’t year-round it’s as close as it could be…It’s been the same for an extended period of time. In the fall, I see more visitation in September and October than I do in may and June.”

Sunny Bay Cafe owner Laurie Orfanidis said she’s looking forward to those fall months after a very successful summer. “The summer went great for us. We were very very busy… We’ve had record sales, many days, many days this summer,” she said, adding “We are looking forward to the off-season, when the meters go off and the regulars come back, but we love all the visitors too.”

Meanwhile, for Top It Off manager Jessica Charles, it took some time, but eventually things got moving: “It was a rough start. It definitely took off very very slow. I’ll say maybe mid-July is when it picked up ,and then all the way until yesterday, I’ve been booming since then.”

Everhart said they’ve noticed a slight dip in overnight hotel occupancy, though it’s not necessarily about the number of people staying, but rather how they’re choosing to stay: “When COVID happened, we had so many people that came and rented here and worked virtually, and that seems to have transitioned into ‘I’m gonna keep doing that. I’m gonna rent this place.'”

Everhart said that each summer between 7 and 9 million people visit the Rehoboth Beach area.

She added that we won’t know for sure until the state releases traffic numbers, but she expects that those figures will indicate the town had a very strong season.