Human resource and supply shortages were among the obstacles the hotel industry in southeast Texas faced as Hurricane Harvey and subsequent flooding slammed into the state on August 25.
An informal survey by HOTELS and local media reports show that Harvey caused much more than the property damage that blasted Houston and nearby areas and added to the usual daily operational hurdles.
“The first 24 hours were scary,” Hilary Helfman, PR manager at the Four Seasons Houston, told HOTELS on behalf of the property’s general manager, Tom Segesta, who was unavailable for comment. “But we haven’t seen much flooding in the area we’re located in downtown,” which Helfman said helped stabilize the property’s operations within about 72 hours of Harvey’s arrival in Houston.
The absence of floodwater also helped more employees return to work and allowed deliveries of goods to restock depleted supplies within a week of the storm’s full impact. “Our guests are safe and comfortable, and that’s our top priority,” she added.
Many of the general managers in the affected areas were too busy handling recovery activities to discuss their experiences when contacted by HOTELS in the past week. But several related tales of loss of sleep, diminishing supplies and understandable employee absences were reported as Houston-area residents – and hotel managers – tried to cope with Harvey’s aftermath.
Juan Flores, GM at Hotel Sorella on Houston’s west side, told the San Antonio Express-News that he relied on a skeleton crew on the first weekend of Harvey’s arrival, got less than four hours of sleep and didn’t see his own family for several days. Flores told the paper the hotel was almost full the week after Harvey with about 450 evacuees renting rooms at deep discounts.
That special occupancy trend is occurring across many of the several hundred hotels in the path of Harvey, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also providing room vouchers to evacuees displaced by Harvey and the subsequent flooding. The agency has about US$73.4 million available for housing assistance, according to its website. FEMA also estimated that nearly 37,000 people were in American Red Cross and partner shelters in Texas 10 days after Harvey made landfall.
“For hotels within a few hours of affected areas, a vast number of the rooms are currently occupied by evacuees and relief workers,” said Scott Joslove, president and CEO of the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association (THLA). “We anticipate these numbers to increase as FEMA works to increasingly relocate impacted families from shelters to lodging properties.”
Joslove added that hotel properties that suffered physical damage from the storm or from flooding already are making repairs while providing housing for relief workers and others. He expects hotel occupancies to normalize as more permanent housing options become available, Joslove said in an email to HOTELS.
That sentiment is echoed by Katherine Lugar, president and CEO at the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).
“In the face of this overwhelming crisis, it’s been incredible to watch the hospitality industry mobilize and do what they do best,” the Texas native said in a statement. Lugar cited examples of hotels and their staffs offering “financial resources, time, space and expertise in service of rescue efforts.”
These include, she said: Hilton chefs preparing food for evacuees at the Houston Convention Center; Best Western employees making themselves available on a 24/7 basis to meet whatever needs arise; and companies like Wyndham Hotel Group and IHG setting up fundraising campaigns with proceeds going directly to such organizations as Save the Children and the American Red Cross, respectively. (Read more about how Marriott and its employees are responding to the storm at Executive Chairman Bill Marriott’s LinkedIn blog.)
Lugar also cited the case of staffers at the Marriott Courtyard in southwest Houston trekking through a flooded parking lot to help a pregnant woman in labor out of her car and into the hotel where she was comforted with towels, blankets and hot water. Soon thereafter, a large dump truck “miraculously” showed up to ferry the woman to nearby Texas Children’s Hospital. The hotel had been surrounded by waist-deep floodwater in the first 24 hours of Harvey, according to a report from CNN.
According to a statement by Marriott International, the majority of its Houston-area hotels are fully operational. “The select few hotels that were closed due to the storm are still accepting future reservations as availability permits,” the company said. “While the recovery efforts will take time, Marriott International is proud to be part of the Houston area community and ready to welcome guests to this vibrant city.”
Later on Thursday, the family of an Omni Houston Hotel employee missing since August 27 said her body had been found at the hotel, according to KHOU.com. Jill Renick, 48, director of spa services, had volunteered to stay at the hotel to assist guests, according to the report.
It may some time before the regional hotel industry returns to normal, according to Jan Freitag, senior vice president at data analytics firm STR, told HOTELS. He estimated that the supply of rooms in and around the Houston area is likely to decline for the next three to six months, even though the damage to hotel properties may not have been as devastating as first forecast. A temporary labor shortage also is anticipated, he added, as local employees rebuild their homes and lives while floodwaters finally recede and supply chains and delivery systems are restored.
An order by Texas Governor Greg Abbott temporarily suspending some state and local hotel occupancy taxes is now scheduled to expire on September 22, having been extended once already from the original September 12 expiration date. Abbott has not indicated whether the suspension might be extended again as hotel operators try to get back to more normalized operations.
