Shutting down: Eldorado, Loretto among hotel closures

Heritage Hotels puts remaining guests in Hotel St. Francis

A chain was wrapped around the main door handles Monday at the 219-room Eldorado Hotel & Spa, the largest hotel in Santa Fe and the latest in a growing string of hospitality industry closures.

Albuquerque-based Heritage Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Eldorado, consolidated guests from that hotel, plus the Inn & Spa at Loretto, Hotel Chimayó de Santa Fe and Lodge at Santa Fe at the Hotel St. Francis.

Hotel St. Francis is the only Heritage property to remain open in Santa Fe.

Occupants from all five hotels still add up to less than the state-allowed 50 percent capacity level, said Molly Ryckman, marketing vice president at Heritage.

La Fonda on the Plaza remains open, though only at 6 percent occupancy. The Inn of the Governors through this week has 5 percent occupancy booked.

Hotel Santa Fe was the first downtown hotel to close March 18, followed Saturday by the Inn on the Alameda.

The former Garrett’s Desert Inn just put up the Sendero Inn sign to proclaim its new identity but now is among the closed hotels.

The closed hotels leave shuttered at least 762 rooms.

“The federal, state and city government objective is to eliminate travel to suspend the spread of the disease,” said Randy Randall, executive director of Tourism Santa Fe, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “This demonstrates the success of at least that component.”

La Fonda is down to about 10 total staff — about 3 to 4 percent of the full employee complement,

general manager Rik Blyth said.

“I think we’re good through May,” he said. “The owners are saying we are going to try to stick it out.”

Inn of the Governors is evaluating its situation daily, if not multiple times a day, general manager Sam Gerberding said.

“Our effort is to stay open as best we can,” he said. “We feel there are some people who need a place to stay.”

Once one drives past the shuttered Hotel Santa Fe, the Sage Inn Santa Fe remains open, as does the Lamplighter Inn and seemingly all the national brands on Cerrillos Road beyond Richards Avenue. “I don’t think anybody is closed down, that way,” Lamplighter owner Parul Patel said, indicating the stretch of Cerrillos toward Zafarano Drive.