Hotels fill as people seek out warmth

By the time Chamieka HouseOsuya realized she had lost power in her Sugar Land home, it was already too brisk inside the house to tough it out any longer with her three daughters.

She immediately booked a night at a nearby hotel that offered what for the past several days in the Houston area has been in high demand and short supply: electricity, heat and water.

“The line was literally wrapped around the corner with people hoping they could get a room in the hotel,” House-Osuya said. “You have people coming from the Houston area and other suburbs just hoping because their houses are just as cold.”

Across the Houston-Galveston region, where sub-freezing temperatures over the past several days have knocked out power, burst pipes and drained the local

water supply, thousands of people are taking refuge in hotels for what they hope will be temporary lodging. With state officials still declining to give estimates as to when power will be restored to millions of Texans, hotels of varying quality have seen an influx of business, providing a shot in the arm for an industry that in 2020 had begun to buckle under the crushing weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 6,000 hotel workers out of work since March and April.

Beginning Monday, when temperatures stayed below freezing the entire day, hotels were trying to keep up with the increased demand while dealing with the same difficult circumstances that were driving people to their lobbies seeking shelter.

“Sir, we are actually really busy because we are sold out,” a staffer who answered the phone at the Houston Marriott West Loop by The Galleria told a reporter. “You may have to wait for a few minutes.”

Jade Lewis, who answered the phone at The Whitehall Houston, said hotel staff was trying to accommodate guests and to deal with water service that had been affected by burst city water pipes. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, the hotel was no longer taking reservations for the evening.

“We are extremely busy,” Lewis said. “We are trying to change rooms as fast as we can. But we just can’t keep up with the people.”

‘Sold Out’

A review of hotel bookings on the Marriott and Hilton apps revealed no vacancies at hotels in greater Houston on Wednesday, with each property listed as “Sold Out.” A desk clerk at the 1,200-room Hilton Americas Hotel, which maintained power thanks to its own generator, said Monday night it had been a challenge getting staffers such as housekeepers to come in.

Visitors this week have been greeted by long lines for carryout food in the lounge and at the Starbucks.

The lounge ran out of

food on Tuesday night, and a staffer said it’s been difficult to replenish supplies. Starbuck’s continued serving on Wednesday but was limited in its offerings by the lack of water service starting Tuesday night. Hotel staff responded by stationing oversized trash cans full of water from the swimming pool near elevators on each floor that guests could draw from to flush toilets.

Even the Hotel Galvez and Spa in Galveston, one of the island’s most expensive and luxurious hotels, was not immune from the regional water shortage. The hotel was forced to shut its water off early Wednesday as pipes burst at homes and businesses throughout the city, draining the island’s water supply at more than 14,000 gallons per minute, according to city officials.

Still, with its own generator providing electrical service through a power generator, the Galvez was still a haven of sorts for residents who fled much worse conditions.

Refuge from cold

Susan Alexander and Jan Galloway, who live on Galveston’s

East End, took a walk through the Galvez lobby Wednesday afternoon, happy to be cloistered from cold weather that had wreaked havoc on their homes and put their health at risk.

The temperature in Galloway’s house dropped to 24 degrees on Sunday night and a toilet overflowed through the house, sending water down the stairs and quickly turning into a sheet of ice. When Alexander and her husband came to pick up Galloway the following morning to take her to the Galvez, they were worried she had hypothermia.

“It’s a miracle she survived that night,” Alexander said. “Her lips were blue, her hands were shaking badly, white skin. I feel so, so sad for elderly people who don’t have family here, who need oxygen. What do you do for those people?”

However, the transition from house to hotel hasn’t been easy for everyone. Brittany Martin and her family bolted from their power-less home in Spring on Tuesday after hunkering down in the cold for 24 hours. The Martins were able to find a booking at a

hotel near St. Luke’s Hospital, and while they’re grateful for the accommodations, it’s been a difficult adjustment for their teenage son, Maverick.

“He hates it, he wants to be back home,” Martin said.

For Chamieka HouseOsuya, the demand of hotel rooms has forced her to shuffle from one lodging to another, finally finding a room in downtown Houston where she can stay until Sunday. But her finances have been strained in the process. She said she’s running low on gas. Her three daughters, ranging in age from 6 to 10, are autistic and have severe ADHD, with medication that must be refrigerated, but the refrigerator in her hotel room stopped working. Their room has power and heat but no water. They’ve waited more than an hour to get food at whatever locations they have found to be open.

House-Osuya said the situation is stressful on her family, but her mind drifts to homeless people out on the streets or the people without resources to seek and find help.

“I wouldn’t even categorize myself as being the

most vulnerable,” she said. “The people that are being the most vulnerable right now need to be prioritized.”