What does the hotel vacancy rate look like for someone traveling a few thousand miles down the west coast? I'm planning a trip from WA to NM this fall. A friend of mine who works for the USFS is having trouble finding motels for her crew as she travels around the country fighting fires.
Did the pandemic reduce some capacity in the lodging industry? I'm going to research this as much as possible before I hit the road for 2 weeks.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
I doubt it’s a big factor, but when the pandemic hit, hotels had little business and government entities leased hotel space to turn them into homeless shelters and ICE immigrant detainment centers.Originally Posted by Borderland
I think a bigger factor is people are tired of being cooped up and made travel plans. Two years worth of vacation plans compressed into a few months. Plus all of the stimmy money is burning a hole in their pocket.
From what I’m seeing it’s a staffing issue more than anything. Hiring people is a huge challenge right now and the hotels I’ve looked at are suffering that just as much as everyone else.
I see three potential issues. One is the lack of staff due to the pandemic plus the Biden administration keeping workers south of the border by retaining Trump administration border policies.
The second is fire season. More rooms should be available if you go after that. I’d start looking for reservations now, but instead of hitting the websites, call the individual hotels to talk to people on the ground. They may have a different view of things than the marketing department.
The third is the COVID variants. If we don’t get a handle on Delta or if others emerge, then the whole economy might get shut down again.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
I am not planning to travel any time soon, but have read airlines are having difficulty finding hotels for their crews. Presumably this is near airports, mainly not in wildfire zones, so I suspect staffing is a big part of the problem.
Many hospitality jobs pay low wages, and if there are enough government benefits that people can afford to stay home, plus fear of infection dealing with a constant stream of people, that might explain at least part of it. Also a lot of people have died, further reducing the available labor force. Finally there are children to look after, maybe they used to stay with grandparents while mom & dad worked but now... maybe not.
I wonder if labor shortages will ease assuming school resumes full time and extra benefits are reduced or eliminated. Some companies and organizations were / are late to recall people they laid off, and maybe they are light on whatever it takes to find and train them. Even airlines were cancelling flights when they realized they haven't re-hired enough pilots and flight attendants, and there were significant government supports for keeping some of their people employed.
Part of the history of the pandemic will have to be the confusion, mismanagement, ineptitude, etc. not only of political leaders, media, entertainers, and pundits but also business types who demonstrated a lack of faith, empathy and agility in many decisions they made.
Somebody has to make the beds, clean the rooms, and do other tasks, as far as I know this is not something that has been automated.
I stayed (yes, at a Holiday Inn as a matter of fact) in Ottawa during late May / early June, this was before vaccinations became widely available in Ontario. There were few guests and almost zero services unless you specifically asked to have the room cleaned and made up.
I've done a bit of hotel booking and travel along the West Coast (OR & CA) in the last couple of months and haven't noticed any difference compared to pre-Covid. I was able to book flights, rooms, etc. at rates that seemed reasonable to me.
Tangential, but: I stayed in a hotel in Idaho last month where I didn’t see another human being—except for 3 guys on Harleys who were leaving at the same time as me the next morning.
I reserved online, and the check in process was all done via text and the phone. They texted me the room code when I got there, the policies when I confirmed that I’d gotten into the room, and a text of thanks in response when I checked out via text, myself. Not a soul working the place to be found. Fine by me, anti-social reclusive prick that I am, but it was a bit weird.
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
I’ve seen higher rates for most of my travel than usual. And I always check to make sure rates are not cheaper as I get closer to the date. In previous years about 25-50% of my bookings are slightly higher than the current rate, and I have them adjust them to current rates. As I check this year, current rates are almost all higher. Some by quite a bit.
Some of the hotels I’ve stated at this year have had complete floors closed off.
Wanna make $35/hour cleaning hotel rooms? That's what a new hotel that opened here this spring has to pay to get workers. They style themselves as "boutique" so I don't think they can skip the cleaning.
We are truly brothers.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
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