Florida hotels pick up pieces

Hotel & Motel Management, Sept 20, 2004 by Christine Blank

PUNTA GORDA, FLA. -- When John Zaccari, director of operations at the Holiday Inn Punta Gorda, saw strangers running by with televisions from his hotel minutes after Hurricane Charley nearly destroyed the property, he barely blinked.

"There was so much destruction, it was devastating," Zaccari said. He said he was walking around in a daze, casually noticing the door of his office--used as a makeshift command post as the storm was nearing Florida--lying on the ground, the hurricane map with thumbtacks still plastered to it.

"My God, thank God we got them out of the hotel; they would have lost their lives," Zaccari recalled thinking about his guests and employees. The hotel had evacuated about 450 staff and guests earlier that afternoon, Aug. 13, and only a television news crew stayed.

Zaccari watched the destruction of the hotel on television from his home in Sarasota, Fla., about 45 minutes north, and went into shock, he said. The news crew filming from the hotel showed that the roof had just blown off the hotel, and mattresses were hanging out the windows.

He immediately jumped in his car and drove to the hotel.

"I had to drive down there. It's like your home away from home," Zaccari said.

He found the area pitch black, and all the light poles in the parking lot were knocked down. The roofs on each of the three buildings in the complex were torn off. A Coca-Cola vending machine from inside the hotel was sitting out in the parking lot.

Fifty of the Holiday Inn Punta Gorda's 70 employees lost their homes in the hurricane, Zaccari said.

But they are not alone. Thousands of Floridians lost their homes, while many residential and commercial properties in the path of the storm had roofs torn off, fallen trees and other property damage. Preliminary estimates placed insured residential and commercial property losses at $11 billion--the second costliest storm in the United States, next to the $19 billion in property damage caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Damage to hotels is difficult to assess. Even on the Southwest Florida coast where the hurricane first hit, damage ranges varied.

"There are areas where everything is totally destroyed, then right next to them, they are fine," said Tom Waits, president and c.e.o. of the Florida Hotel & Motel Assn.

Properties in Punta Gorda, and on Sanibel Island, Captiva Island and nearby islands were right in the path of the storm, and the effects of the storm also were felt in Fort Myers, Orlando and Daytona Beach as it whipped across the state.

After some hotel owners returned to Sanibel Island, which was closed for a week because it did not have power, they found some properties had minor damage such as landscaping, while others had excessive roof damage, Waits said.

"There was not a significant amount of structural damage to the facilities, but the landscaping damage was extensive on Captiva Island," said Paul Whetsell, chairman and c.e.o. of MeriStar Hospitality Corp., which has one property on Captiva Island and five on Sanibel Island.

Sundial Beach Resort on Sanibel Island, which is operated by Interstate Hotels & Resorts, was still closed in late August because the heating, ventilation and air conditioning units on the roof were torn off by high winds.

"We have electricity, we just don't have air conditioning," said Pete Adania, g.m.

The Pink Shell Resort and Spa on Estero Island sustained damage but did not have to close. However, it lost business because the island closed for about a week.

The hotel is in the process of major cleanup.

"We were more affected by the two-feet surge than wind," said Richard Conti, president and c.o.o. of Cleveland-based Boykin Lodging Co., which operates the Pink Shell and other Florida properties.

The surge meant that two feet of salt water rolled over the island, leaving sand on the pool deck and in rooms on the first floor. The water knocked over shrubs and the salt water killed some of the resort's greenery.

Hotels in Daytona Beach, on the east side of the state, even felt the power of Hurricane Charley. The Sun Viking Lodge, located on the beach, sustained $10 million in damage when gutters, siding and signs blew off and wind-driven rain seeped through sliding glass doors facing the ocean.

Business picks up

While some properties in the Daytona Beach area were not able to reopen when power was restored two to three days after the storm because of water damage to rooms, Sun Viking opened 90 percent of its rooms the day after the storm.

"Business was very good the day after the storm," said Gary Brown, co-owner of the property. "Every room that we could get, we filled."

Brown expects business to remain steady in the near future because builders, contractors and other workers in the area will need a place to stay.

Other Florida hotels are experiencing a similar boom from housing emergency workers and contractors, as well as Florida residents who lost power and homes or have to stay out of their homes until their roofs are repaired.

Occupancy is up significantly across most Southwest and Central Florida counties. In Lee County, which borders the hardest hit county, occupancy was 86.4 percent for the week of Aug. 15-21, compared with 47 percent for the same period last year, according to Smith Travel Research.