Power outages cause run on rooms

By TIM PRESTON
The Independent

ASHLAND January 29, 2009 09:24 pm

— Hotel rooms remain a hot commodity as cold weather lingers in the region.
“We were jam-pack full last night and today we’re maintaining a waiting list,” said Sue Wellman, general manager of the Super 8 motel in Grayson.
She said many of their guests have indicated they plan to stay until electrical service is restored at their homes. Several repair crews working for Grayson RECC are also staying at the inn, Wellman said.
“We’ve had calls from Elliott County, Olive Hill and all over,” she said, indicating continued demand for a warm and well-lit place to stay until the ice and snow have thawed and residential power has been restored.
Hotel managers in the Cannonsburg area also indicated little to no vacancies in the wake of the winter weather.
“We could have sold our rooms 40 times over in the last two days,” said Adam Hill, general manager at Fairfield Inn, who added more than 30 of their rooms are occupied by electrical service crews with four people in each.
“The demand has been astronomical,” said Hill, who personally answered calls from residents of Grayson, Rush and Catlettsburg as they tried to find a place to stay until electricity was restored in those areas.
Roughly 20 percent of the hotel’s employees were also stranded or otherwise unable to make it to work, he said, praising the remaining staff for pitching in to take care of everything that needed to be done in the full house.
George Arthur, general manager of the Days Inn at Cannonsburg, said that hotel is booked solid until at least the first of February with many local residents as well as electrical service repair technicians.
Stephen Damron at the Quality Inn in Ashland near Catlettsburg said many of their guests are renting rooms on a day-to-day basis waiting for their power to be reconnected. Damron, who lives on a hill in Catlettsburg and had to hitch a ride with someone else to get to work, said hotel employees were waiting until their maids had completed rounds to determine if they had any rooms available.
“We were packed down last night,” Damron said.
Ron Geis of Lakinview Heights in Catlettsburg said he and his wife, Mary, along with their little dog, Sophie, were unable to find a room anywhere in the immediate area and were happy to find an unclaimed space at the Days Inn in Grayson. Despite the distance, Geis said their only difficult driving came from the unpaved section of road in front of their home.
“We’ve been fortunate,” Geis said, explaining their electrical service was restored shortly after they had checked into their hotel room. “We had already paid for the room so we checked in and enjoyed some Papa John’s pizza.”
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.