Joaquin Bolivar III, owner of the 135-room Courtyard by Marriott San Juan Miramar and the 80-room San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel on Isla Verde beach, is already moving forward after he, his staff and about 210 guests lived through Hurricane Maria eight days ago.
In an exclusive interview with HOTELS on Tuesday, Bolivar said this was not his first hurricane experience, but this one “had one heck of a kick.”
The good news is that other than some minor damage, his Courtyard hotel is OK, operating at 100% occupancy under generator power and serving as a command center for the Red Cross as well as a haven for 10 to 15 stranded tourists. The restaurant is open, the refrigerators are full, there are four pallets of water and the Pepsi truck was due to deliver more supplies today. “We are more than happy to have these guys here,” Bolivar said. “The lobby is crazy with movement from Red Cross people at all hours of the day and night.”
His hotel on the beach, on the other hand, suffered more damage. But once a generator being hand-delivered by a friend from Miami arrives this weekend, he will open his doors and operate at about 60% capacity with plenty of business lined up. Most of it is government and first-responder business for the moment and foreseeable future. So what worries Bolivar is how quickly the island nation will recover and bring back tourists who drive the economy – an economy already in a fragile state with a form of bankruptcy filed in May.
“I just heard a few minutes ago that President Trump is flying down Tuesday. Hopefully, he will bring some news and a big fat checkbook,” Bolivar opined. “I don’t think many people here really grasp the severity of what has happened on the island – it is a generation-defining moment. Things have changed here and I think we can make a change for the better. But the way of life in Puerto Rico changed for sure.”
For the moment, Bolivar has diesel fuel for the Courtyard that should last another 15 days. He is spending a lot of time sourcing additional fuel to keep his hotels open to serve the community, his team and, likely, his debtors.
“The real concern is all about the diesel fuel and locking down enough to get you through,” Bolivar said. “Every day we are trying to locate different supplies of diesel fuel. I got together with friends and put together a diesel cartel. We have 5,000 gallons stored here and 10,000 gallons stored there, and dividing everything up. “
Bolivar also wondered why there has not been more federal involvement, to date. “I don’t understand why they haven’t activated the National Guard locally,” he said. “If there has ever been a situation when they needed the guard kicking butt and taking names, it is now. They activated the Army Reserve (about 4,000 soldiers) but for some reason they haven’t put the National Guard on the streets, which is where they should be.”
Tale of preparedness
When recalling his experience with the storm and how his team and guests responded, Bolivar said the beach hotel had been evacuated and that his Courtyard was extremely fortunate to have an almost brand-new generator. It was even over-speced on purpose when acquired with the ability to serve as a prime power source built just for this type of situation. “We should be OK for the duration of this event. We stocked up on everything – filters, oil in case something goes down,” he said.
That said, no doubt no one quite knew what to expect from Maria. But without an exception, Bolivar said at the Courtyard he had “the best guests in the world, completely understanding of the situation.”
After a Monday night staff meeting to finalize contingency plans, the hurricane struck on Tuesday and guests were moved from their rooms, away from glass windows and placed in different parts of the hotel. “The idea was not to have one huge group, but to split people into different groups. We had groups of people the in lobby, hallways, conference rooms and the restaurant downstairs,” he recalled. “We had water, breakfast, snacks distributed throughout the day. It was cramped and warm for awhile, but we are alive and nothing major happened to the property.”
During the height of the storm, Bolivar said everyone kept pretty calm. “The great thing is we have WiFi that runs through old gas pipes on the avenue and it is as bulletproof as it gets,” he said. “The WiFi never went down. We had communications, kids were playing games, people were watching news online, and that helped a lot. There are always a few who want to poke their heads out to see what is happening, trying to sneak through security, but we stopped them right away… I am really proud of our team and really proud of guests who acclimated well.”
At the beach hotel, where Bolivar kept a skeleton crew to ride out the storm, the story was different. “Getting over there was like a scene out of a movie, driving through 3 feet of water and mud at 3:30 a.m.,” Bolivar said. “It looked like a bomb went off at Isla Verde. When you drive through the area, the trees are bare and it looks like the dead of winter. It’s a weird feeling.
“I saw all the hotels in the area. The Courtyard Isla Verde had considerable damage, the El San Juan is closed because it didn’t have a generator, the Caribe Hilton and Condado Plaza are closed, and all the hotels are concerned about supply and diesel.
“Slowly but surely we are coming back. They are starting to move away fallen trees and zink on the ground is being picked up. I’m surprised in a week’s time how much has been accomplished.”
The near-term questions
Bolivar said he has two families from the front desk staff and two from engineering living in the hotel, as they lost everything. Given the issues with gas and a curfew, he said about 11 or 12 team members are staying on site.
One of the biggest remaining questions is when the electricity will be restored. Bolivar said no one really knows. He said that while the generators did not collapse, power lines are down everywhere. And the line for gas at the station opposite Bolivar’s Courtyard runs about a mile.
Another issue, according to Bolivar, is security. “It’s very dark at night. We have our own private security but the police are stretched thin,” he said. “We need more security in the hotel areas, be it a squad car parked in front of the hotel at night or whatever.”
He also returned to the issue of access to diesel fuel. “Supposedly the diesel is here in country, but it is a headache to put together tanks to get supply. We are lucky to have 16 days of diesel, but I am still concerned.”
And then there is the long-term worry about rebuilding the island. “We have a short-term boom of federal government business and first responders. But I am concerned about how long it will take to bring back the electricity and normalize communication,” he said. “I am getting six satellite phones this weekend as there are dead zones all over the island. They are talking about next two months of in and out cell phone communication. It’s rough.”
But in the next breath, Bolivar also expressed his gratitude. “The power is out and water is back on line only in some places. But compared to some of the other islands we are fortunate.”
In closing, Bolivar said what he will remember most about managing through Hurricane Maria is how well his team came together. “There were lots of curveballs, but they did a great job managing the people. It was not about managing a hurricane; we were managing the human condition.”