Hobby Airport Chaos Spills Over To Hotels As Rush Of Southwest Airline Passengers Book Rooms

 © Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer

Southwester Airlines flight cancellations are impacting nearby hotels and businesses as passengers deal with arranging alternate transportation or waiting for their next flight. File photo from November 2021 shows a Southwest airplane flying into the Hobby Airport.

A rash of flight cancellations sent passengers scrambling to hotels nearby the Hobby Airport, a major Southwest Airline hub in Houston. Hotels saw their occupancy levels jump over the holiday weekend with travelers stuck in purgatory of waiting for their next flight or finding alternate transportation when the airline canceled hundreds of flights out of the airport, hotel operators said.

Many passengers found new routes with different airlines through George Bush Intercontinental airport, others caught buses, booked rental cars or had family members drive long distance to pick them up, said Britney Moreno, front desk manager at Courtyard by Marriott Houston Hobby Airport, which has seen a wave of Southwest passengers.

“I’ve had people drive to Waco or New Mexico; they’re getting rental cars and leaving but even then, there’s a wait time because there aren’t many rental places with availability,” Moreno said.

The 150-room Courtyard hotel hit about 50 percent occupancy on Monday night, when they hotel had been planning for much lower occupancy, she said.

“We were actually hoping it would be very slow since it was a holiday, but the whole weather situation happened and from there it got busy,” Moreno said. By late Tuesday afternoon, much of the initial rush was dissipating as customers rearranged their plans, she added.

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Other hotels were planning for a slow weekend too. Miya Ball, front officer manager at Hilton Garden Inn Houston Hobby Airport, said the 136-room hotel had expected to achieve about 30 percent occupancy over the weekend. Instead, its occupancy climbed to 90 percent Monday night as disheveled passengers and flight attendants filled the hotel.

“It’s bringing in that extra revenue we weren’t expecting, but we’ve had a lot of guests coming in who are very frustrated,” Ball said. “It’s been very chaotic; however we have the availably to help.”

Both Ball and Moreno said Southwest wasn’t providing direct vouchers for flight attendants or passengers, who were instead saving receipts and expecting to get reimbursed later. Some hotels, including the Best Western Plus Hobby Airport & Suites, are getting vouchers from Southwest, said Maria Salas, general manager at the Best Western. Salas said the 72- room hotel saw a slight bump in occupancy over the weekend, hitting about 50 percent to 60 percent occupancy Monday night.

“I believe this is going to go on for a while, most likely through the New Year,” Salas said.

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Nationally, hotels saw occupancy rates hit about 54.5 percent in the week leading up to the wintery weather walloping much of the Midwest and East, according to the hotel data firm STR. That was about 9.2 percent above the occupancy rates hotels saw in the same period before the pandemic in 2019. Average daily rates were also up nearly 24 percent from their 2019 levels, hitting an average of about $135 per a night across all hotel types nationally, according to STR.