Hotels quickly booked up after storms in Detroit
“It was crazy. I went from having a nice, quiet evening to standing in one place for four hours doing nothing but answering the phone and checking people in,” said Sally Manley, support manager at My Place Hotel in Wixom.
WIXOM, Michigan (FOX 2) – As storms and strong winds rolled in Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of thousands of people in the Detroit area were without power.
Some Wixom sought relief in nearby hotels.
The My Place Hotel on Alpha Drive was fully booked on Tuesday evening and the front desk told FOX 2 that the hotel was already fully booked again for Wednesday evening.
“It was crazy. I went from a nice, quiet evening to standing in one place for four hours doing nothing but answering the phone and checking people in,” said Sally Manley, support manager at My Place Hotel. “Last night was a madhouse.”
South Lion resident Tonya Etter brought her five-month-old pit bull, Sasha, to stay at the My Place Hotel.
“It was hot. We stayed in the house and slept for two hours. Today we didn’t want to do that again, so we just decided to take a room,” Etter said. “If she gets too hot, she could die. It seems like every time there’s a bad storm, we lose power and they want to raise the prices.”
Etter was one of more than 300,000 Michigan residents who lost power Tuesday night as a severe thunderstorm moved through the region.
Residents without power due to storms seek shelter in Wixom hotels
About 150,000 DTE customers across southeast Michigan were without power as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. Several hotels are fully booked for the second day in a row as residents contend with power and air conditioning outages in their homes.
About 150,000 DTE customers in southeast Michigan were still without power as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Etter said it was difficult to find a free hotel room until she came across the My Place Hotel.
“It was terrible. Yesterday they were all booked and then today I finally found this place,” she told FOX 2.
According to My Place Hotel, all 64 rooms were fully booked on Tuesday evening.
“That’s the hardest part of your job – when you know there are people in need and then all the rooms are full and you don’t have any left to give to anyone else,” Manley said.
At the Springhill Suites in Wixom, all 99 rooms were occupied. General manager Chelsea Sims said it was “chaotic” as they tried to accommodate as many people as possible.
“A lot of people were coming and going. People were coming in this morning trying to check in at 7 a.m. and looking for a room. So it was busy. My staff handled it very well,” Sims said. “People were worried about their pets, elderly people were coming in.”
And the Woodspring Suites across I-96 were also fully booked.
“You’re walking fast, and if things are flying around your house or trees are down, you can’t get out,” said Wixom resident Elizabeth Wister. “I think to myself, ‘I’ll be done in two minutes. I don’t know about you.'”
Wister, who also experienced a power outage at home, said when the storms passed, she jumped in her car and drove straight to Woodspring.
“We got a room for under $100, and it’s a nice room too,” she added. “It’s really nice to have air conditioning, the TV works, you can charge all your tablets and your phone.”
As the weather becomes increasingly unpredictable, Wister and Etter will also stay in their hotels at least overnight from Wednesday to Sunday.
“I’m very grateful. I’m very grateful. Otherwise we would have driven out of town to find accommodation just to give (Sasha, the dog) a comfortable room,” Etter said.
Anyone who is already experiencing a power outage or may experience a power outage during future storms and would like to book a room is advised to make the reservation as soon as possible.
“Call early and get to the hotel early,” Manley said. “Secure the room because people tend to wait too long and then we get booked up very quickly.”
According to DTE, power had been restored to over 169,000 customers by Wednesday evening, and crews are working to restore power to at least 90% of affected residents by Thursday evening.
