Hotels report ups, downs from flood

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003 | 10:54 a.m.

Tuesday's flash flood resulted in a few dozen displaced Las Vegas residents booking rooms in area hotels, but at least one lodging property will benefit from a flood of a different sort -- a flood of insurance agents.

The Hampton Inn Summerlin, located near the heart of the area affected most by the 2 3/4-inch rush-hour deluge, reported that only about three local residents affected by flood waters checked in Tuesday night and about five or six whose homes were damaged by the flood came in Wednesday.

But Jennifer Zebio, sales manager for the 127-room property, said the flood resulted in an unexpected economic boost when an undisclosed insurance company booked seven rooms for claims adjustors for 30 nights beginning Friday.

"We had a few people come in as a result of the flood," Zebio said. "Their houses were damaged and they needed a place to stay."

Local emergency personnel estimated that residents of 3,000 homes were affected by the storm, with some blocked or stranded by flood waters while others endured property damage. Some also lost power during the "100-year" storm, so designated because a storm of such magnitude statistically occurs once in 100 years.

Zebio said the Hampton itself had negligible damage when water flowed into some first-floor rooms, but employees packed towels at the base of room doors to keep water out.

At another nearby property, the five-story, 128-room La Quinta Tech Center, general manager Alex Oh had just settled in to his first day back from vacation the day the flood hit.

"It was pretty crazy for awhile," Oh said. "Tenaya (Way) wasn't too bad, but the intersection at Tenaya and Cheyenne (Avenue) was pretty flooded. I'm sure there were a few people that didn't want to have to spend three hours waiting to get home."

Oh said the occupancy rate at the hotel was higher than normal Tuesday night and he said he thought 12 local people checked in as a result of the flood.

Clark Albright, director of marketing for the JW Marriott hotel-casino at Summerlin Parkway and Rampart Boulevard, said his property had few takers for a special neighbors' relocation rate programmed into the company's reservation system specifically for emergency situations like the one that occurred Tuesday night.

"We had one or two (extra guests), but it didn't happen much for us," Albright said, noting that that $99 special rate is about $30 lower than the normal rate offered to local residents.

Albright said damage was minimal to the 536-room property which, ironically, had to delay its opening in July 1999 when a flash flood swamped new landscaping and heavy rain resulted in a leak in the casino, known at the time as the Resort at Summerlin.

"We saw the storm coming in over the mountain range," Albright said of Tuesday's cloudburst. "At its peak, it was a gray-out and you could barely see the outline of one (hotel) tower from the other. We just turned the switch on and went into disaster mode. We had to relocate a few guests because of water around the outside of their rooms, but that was about it."

Albright said some of the landscaping was wind-blown and some of the storm debris had to be fished out of the main swimming pool. But he said he felt the hotel was spared, since trees were uprooted and damage was more severe just a few blocks away.

The time of the storm worked in the property's favor, he said, because it fell between the departure and the arrival of two convention groups.

"About 60 (percent) to 70 percent of our business is groups at this time of the year," Albright said. "We had a corporate meeting of Eli Lilly (and Co., a pharmaceutical manufacturer) that got out just ahead of the storm and Pacific Dermatologists is scheduled to come in later this week."

For three northwest Las Vegas properties operated by Station Casinos Inc., the flood resulted in a financial downturn.

Lesley Pittman, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas-based locals' casino company, said slot machine and table play was off significantly at the Santa Fe Station, the Texas Station and the Fiesta Rancho hotel-casinos on Tuesday night. She could not quantify the amount of the downturn.

"For us, it's all about access and there wasn't much of that going on," Pittman said. "I don't know whether people were just staying at home watching the flood coverage on television or if they were just paying attention to the advice from local government officials who urged them to stay home."

Pittman said the downturn occurred at the northwest Station properties closest to the area affected the most by the storm and not at the company's other Las Vegas Valley properties.

She said Station's hotel-casinos didn't realize any significant increase in hotel occupancy from displaced homeowners.