HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — People trying to book a hotel room to escape from a waterless, powerless, or even roofless home after Typhoon Mawar have had a hard time finding lodging, but that situation is expected to improve in the coming weeks and months, according to Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association President Mary Rhodes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides rental assistance for people whose homes have become unlivable or need to be repaired. But structure damage and occupancy challenges shut down bookings at hotels in the wake of Mawar.
“One, we had tourists,” said Rhodes, possibly 6,000 of them who were stranded while the runway and terminals at A.B. Won Pat International Airport were unusable. And the stranded tourists slowed response to the second issue, damage, Rhodes said.
“Guests might still be in a room. … They need to move to another room to repair those damages, like wet carpets, so they’re not going to sell more rooms while they’re remediating,” she said.
Damaged rooms could have knocked a hotel’s occupancy limit down to around 60% of what it normally is, from 200 down to 120, for example, Rhodes said. Add to that the fact that many locations are now prioritizing first responders such as FEMA officials and American Red Cross volunteers, and any local resident looking to book a room may have a tough time finding one.
“I can promise you, there are hotels who are taking local residents,” she said. “I’ve placed quite a few in the last two weeks.”
What to expect
Which hotels were accepting local residents, however, could change from one day to the next.
Any residents looking to find lodging are advised to keep calling around until they find establishments willing to take them. Reports from business owners in Tumon indicate more and more hotel rooms may be opening up by June 15, Rhodes said.
However, people getting disaster relief should expect they may not be able to be accommodated for the entire period for which FEMA will cover their expenses, or at the very least expect to get bounced around between rooms.
“I think it’s going to be very hard to say, ‘Can I get a room for two months?'” Rhodes told the Post.
Numerous rooms have been booked in advance, she said. An upcoming military exercise will block off a large number of rooms from the end of June to the start of August, and Korean and Japanese tour groups will have booked up much of July and August.
Occupancy will become more and more flexible in the coming months, Rhodes said.
Maj. Tom Stambaugh, from the Salvation Army Boise Corps and formerly from the Guam Corps, is shown Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency Guam in Tumon.
