Hurricane Georges Shifts Puerto Rico Occupancy

<B> Hurricane Georges Shifts Puerto Rico Occupancy</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

<I>San Juan, Puerto Rico</I> - Hurricane Georges' 110 mph winds crushed homes and uprooted palm trees here in September, but it brought some lucky hotels on the island almost 100 percent occupancies in the midst of disaster.

Properties that weathered the storm, including the Ritz-Carlton, El Conquistador Resort and El San Juan Hotel & Casino, are drawing in the business of their closed competitors and filling virtually every available room. After Hurricane Georges hit, almost a third of the major hotels in Puerto Rico closed their doors, cutting the total room supply by more than 20 percent.

Corporate travel buyers are shifting their business to the open properties on the island as they wait for the closed ones to come back on line, probably in December.

"It's really hard to get rooms right now," said travel buyer Olga Ruiz of the San Juan division of Cigna Insurance, one of many U.S.-based companies doing business here. "I've been managing it, but most of these rooms are sold on departure and arrival basis. Even if you want to extend the traveler's stay, you can't."

Cigna travelers primarily are staying at the Ritz-Carlton and San Juan Grand Beach Resort & Casino. The insurance company, headquartered in Philadelphia, increased its number of travelers to Puerto Rico since the storm to survey the damage to properties insured by the company. Now the issue is where to house them.

Where the company normally averages four or five travelers to Puerto Rico per month, in October about 25 Cigna travelers stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. Some have had to move from one hotel to another if they wanted to extend their stays because dates immediately following their expected date of departure already were booked.

Ruiz said she was excited about the re-opening of the Condado Plaza this week after a 30-day closure. More than half of its 570 rooms are operational and the remaining inventory will be open by early December.

"It'll help out significantly. I'm really limited on San Juan Grand and the Ritz," Ruiz said. "So far I've been able to manage, and thank God I haven't had somebody left on the street. I'm going to be spread out a little bit because we're under rooms now in San Juan."

Before Hurricane Georges drove through here, Ritz had projected a 76 percent occupancy for October; now it is running at 96 percent, said director of sales and marketing John Cardona.

The Ritz-Carlton shows little signs of damage from the Category II storm besides the missing fronds from its palm trees. According to hotel officials, the hotel's double-paned windows, designed to mute out the noise of landing planes at the nearby airport, also were responsible in large measure for keeping the property intact. While the storm whipped across the island, the hotel housed 50 guests.

The El San Juan and the El Conquistador--both of which were acquired last month by Wyndham International--have remained open, and are reporting occupancies between 95 and 100 percent for the month of October. "Business travelers are fighting to get in because a lot of group business has been relocated from other hotels that have been shut down," said Betsy Mujica, an El San Juan sales assistant.

Most of the hotels currently closed by the hurricane are expected to reopen by December, when they will still garner high occupancies as they enter high season.

"The timing of this is fortuitous," said Juan Carlos Molina, public relations director for the Puerto Rican Tourism Co. "This is typically the slow season. By high season the hotels will be open, and we're expecting a real high occupancy this year, even though there's a big increase in room numbers."

Most conventions planned for October were shifted to other hotels or postponed until a later date. But the Hyatt Dorado Beach, for example, was able to retain 85 percent of its business.

Several groups, such as the Puerto Rico Manufacturers, Endocrinology Association and Physiatry Association, postponed their conventions until next year, said Yvette Gonzalez, director of sales and marketing for both of the Hyatt properties.

"Most of our clients are willing to rebook their meetings," Gonzalez said. "A majority of them moved to a later date."

Some hotels closed by the storm are taking the opportunity to expedite renovation projects they already had planned. The Hyatt Dorado Beach and the Hyatt Cerromar, with combined renovation budgets of $51 million, are two such hotels. The Cerromar suffered minor structural damage of the acrylic roof in its lobby and water damage on the ball room floors, Gonzalez said. With its doors closed to repair and clean up the hurricane damage, it also has commenced the renovation project, which it had expected to conclude by November 1999 through a partial closure of the property. Now, about 75 percent of the renovations will be finished by Dec. 15.

The Hyatt Dorado has followed a similar renovation plan.