Hotel availability in the Capital City remains low nearly a month after catastrophic flooding left the city reeling and thousands homeless, the head of Baton Rouge’s hotel and lodging association says.
Ben Blackwell, president of the Baton Rouge Lodging Association, says the Baton Rouge market is compressed.
Pockets of occupancy for a night or two can be found during the week as people check out early, emergency responders leave or flood survivors find other housing. But anything long term is going to be difficult to find, Blackwell says.
“I expect the market to stay compressed until October, November,” he says.
September is usually a period of ramped-up activity for local hotels, Blackwell says, because college football season is starting and more people are returning to the city at summer’s end. There’s even more of a demand for hotels in the market after the August flood, he says.
Still, more rooms were expected to become available ahead of LSU’s first home football game on Saturday as first responders from other states returned home, clearing the way for football fans converging on the city.
In some ways, that has happened, Blackwell says.
“You’ve had some emergency responders leave the area, which has allowed some football fans to come in,” he says.
But while many are eager to return to some sense of normalcy, emergency personnel, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and insurance workers are still occupying hotel rooms.
The majority of hotels also still have a pocket of survivors, Blackwell says.
“You’re going to be hard pressed if you’re looking,” he says.
—Alexandria Burris
