San Diego Hotels Fill—With Wildfire Evacuees
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 10.23.07 | 12:17 PM ET
Usually when I drive past Hotel Circle, a road near the 8 freeway here in San Diego packed with hotels, my heart goes out to the visitors there because, well, they’re staying in a place called Hotel Circle, with views of traffic zooming by on the freeway. It’s not the most attractive location San Diego has to offer. But that’s the least of the concerns of many guests staying in those hotels now. As would-be tourists and business travelers postponed visits to San Diego, canceling hotel reservations to avoid the raging wildfires, locals snapped up hotel rooms in droves as they evacuated threatened or even burning homes. A number of hotels have offered discounts to those in need.
Reports the San Diego Union-Tribune:
For instance, the Omni Hotel, a luxury downtown high-rise, offered a block of 200 rooms at a discount rate of $99 per night - all gone within an hour. The Days Hotel on Hotel Circle also offered about 150 rooms at a rate of $49 - also gone within an hour.
Homewood Suites dropped its average $200-per-night rate to $39 to $59 per night, with a free breakfast thrown in.
Those who rely on tourism for their livelihood are understandably concerned about the impact the fires will have on the bottom line. San Diego was the nation’s fourth most visited destination last year. Top attractions, including Sea World and San Diego Wild Animal Park, are closed today because of the fires.
The air outside my window near the coast in San Diego is a muddy gray. It smells like a fireplace. Ash has settled on the cars on my street. I’m keeping my windows and doors shut. But if that’s all I have to complain about this week, I’ll count myself fortunate.
Photo of burning structure in San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo neighborhood: AP.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Anita Howard 10.23.07 | 9:40 PM ET
Our prayers go out to you in California. We, in Mississippi, understand tragedy. It is nice to see that the hotels are lending a neighborly hand to the cause. Just know, you will get through this tragedy.
TambourineMan 10.24.07 | 5:57 PM ET
Good news is the winds have died down and some of the blazes are under control, at least here in the LA area. It’s still smoky as hell. Eerie orange sunlight pokes through the muck once in a while.