Powerless And Cold, Residents Find No Room At The Inn Apple Cup, Conventions Force Refugees From Blackout To Seek Shelter Elsewhere
The desperate search for a warm hotel room could become more frantic tonight as visitors with weekend reservations oust power outage victims.
“We’ve got previous commitments,” said Larry Holstein, general manager of The Coeur d’Alene Resort. “The Apple Cup’s this weekend.”
The annual football face-off between the University of Washington and Washington State University is just one reason people seeking relief from cold homes might have to look a little harder.
“There’s a lot of conventions in town, too. They’re taking up a lot of room,” said Mark Mundel, general manager of Cavanaugh’s Fourth Avenue in Spokane.
Tonight, the hotel will be half filled by storm victims and half by visitors with advance reservations, Mundel said.
Hotels and motels throughout the region began filling up after Tuesday’s ice storm left thousands of residents without heat or lights.
Many hotels offer winter rates, but some revert to full price when reservations pile up.
“Winter rates are only available when we’re at low occupancy,” said Norma Walker, a central reservations clerk at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park in Spokane, where a room goes for $109 per night.
Best Western Templin’s Resort and Conference Center in Post Falls was booked for Thursday night, but rooms still were available for tonight, at $71 apiece.
That’s where Alfreda Edwards was headed.
“We got to go to Templin’s; my lips are blue,” said Edwards, a South Hill diabetic who packed her suitcase on Thursday after struggling to take an insulin shot by candlelight.
The Red Lion City Center in Spokane was booked solid for the next couple days.
“Your heart just goes out to them,” General Manager Lynn Ericksen said of the people searching for shelter. “It’s very tough when you don’t have a room.”
Erickson and many of his employees are holed up at the hotel due to power outages in their own homes.
Though most rooms are booked, people who search hard might be rewarded. The region has smaller hotels that don’t immediately come to mind, said Martha Lou Wheatley, spokesperson for the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“I think there are rooms out there to be had but people just don’t know where to look,” Wheatley said.
Indeed, at the Park Lane Motel on Spokane’s East Sprague, 16 out of 28 rooms were available Thursday afternoon, through the weekend. The only problem, said co-owner Roberta Lynch, is that the motel has no lights. But there is heat and hot water.
“Under these circumstances, you can dicker a little (over price),” Lynch said.
Post Falls’ Sleep Inn had eight rooms left for Thursday night and was only 50 percent booked for tonight.
Bed and breakfasts also are a good bet.
Two rooms were available at the Cobblestone Bakery Bed and Breakfast on South Washington. The prices - $69 for a single and $89 for a double - include a breakfast of hot coffee and homemade pastries.
Hotels as distant as Ritzville and Colville said Spokane residents were competing for rooms with travelers pulling off snow-lined highways and hunters hoping to bag a deer before the white-tail deer season ends Sunday in northeastern Washington.
“I’ve been turning away a lot of people, but I assumed they were hunters,” said Dave Pohto, owner of the Nordlig Motel in Chewelah.
Most hotel clerks, though pessimistic about room availability, said power gradually is being restored and hotel guests are returning to their homes. They advise people to put their names on waiting lists and to keep calling.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Alison Boggs Staff writer Staff writer Grayden Jones contributed to this report.