Creek Fire firefighters, evacuees fill Fresno-area hotels. A turnaround from COVID-19
Fresno-area hotels – once nearly empty as coronavirus walloped the travel industry – are now overflowing with guests.
But it’s a boom in business nobody wants to celebrate.
The hotels are nearly full with evacuees and firefighters from the Creek Fire, which is burning about 70 miles northeast of Fresno. The fire has burned more than 175,000 acres near Shaver Lake and thousands of people have left their homes.
The La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham on Clovis Avenue is sold out this weekend, a drastic change from the weeks before when people weren’t traveling because of COVID-19, said general manager Shivam Patel.
“This is a complete 180,” he said. Before, “it was just me and one or two residents in the hotels. Now it’s completely the opposite. We’re struggling to find enough rooms to fit people into.”
Half the hotel is full of evacuees. The other half is full of firefighters, he said.
It’s a similar story at most hotels in the area.
The Red Cross is paying for 1,200 people to stay in hotels from Mariposa to Tulare counties.
In years past, the organization would have housed evacuees in traditional shelters with lots of people under one roof, said Taylor Poisall, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of the Central California.
But since they’re trying to avoid the spread of coronavirus, evacuees are being housed in hotels instead. Donations and a partnership with Fresno County pay for the rooms.
The Red Cross also supplies people staying in hotels with three meals a day, snacks, medication and other supplies.
More than 1,000 firefighters are also working on the Creek Fire, some of them staying at area hotels.
Some residents who have left home to get away from the fire book a hotel room for the night themselves, usually because they’re traveling to friends or family in other parts of the state.
The Hotel Piccadilly on West Shaw Avenue in Fresno is one of a few pet-friendly hotels in town. It has about six rooms that are set aside for pets and is adding more, said general manager Paula Flores.
“Those have been sold out every night,” she said. “We definitely didn’t want to turn away anyone who had pets.”
The influx in business is a turnaround from when the shutdowns first happened in the spring and both business travelers and tourists canceled their plans.
COVID-19 and hotels
Back in April, hotels in Fresno and Clovis had, on average, about 35% of their rooms occupied, according to the Fresno/Clovis Convention & Visitors Bureau.
It has slowly and steadily increased since then, though hotels were still about 60% occupied in July, the most recent month figures were available.
Now they’re almost booked.
“It is a tragic thing that has happened, but for hotels it is looking good in that we’re recovering a lot of what we lost from coronavirus,” said Patel of La Quinta.
Some have brought back employees laid off during the downtown. Yet others are making do with limited staff they have left.
But it’s not the type of rebound they were hoping for.
“I have people in my lobby with a face full of tears (saying) everything they own is burned to a crisp,” he said, adding that the hotel is a pickup site for people needing everything from food to toiletries and clothing, even for people not staying there.
Of course, hotels aren’t the only place evacuees go.
Many stay with friends or family in the area.
Churches up and down the Valley have offered their parking lots to people in RVs or campers, along with some private property owners.
Airbnb also allows home owners to offer a portion of their home, or their entire home, for free to evacuees through its website.
