No rooms at the Holiday Inn

Two weeks ago, 188 hotel rooms vanished from Cape Girardeau's tourism landscape.

There's little mystery surrounding the disappearance -- the closing of the Holiday Inn will leave the city with 20 percent fewer rooms for a year, making it tougher at times for visitors to find a place to stay.

That point is hitting home quickly, with two of the city's bigger tourism events looming -- Southeast Missouri State University's Family Weekend, which begins Thursday, and next month's university Homecoming celebration.

"It's going to be a little bit painful for a year," said Chuck Martin, director of Cape Girardeau's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The fact is, you take 180-plus rooms off line for special events like Family Weekend and Homecoming, and things are going to be pretty tight."

Closed Sept. 1

Holiday Inn closed its doors Sept. 1 to make way for a 102-room Holiday Inn Express, scheduled to open in fall 2004. Martin said Cape Girardeau had about 1,000 hotel rooms before Holiday Inn closed.

Apparently as a result of the decrease, eight out of nine hotels and bed and breakfasts contacted in and around Cape Girardeau on Tuesday reported few or no vacancies this weekend and expected to fill remaining rooms with walk-ins and latecomers.

Vacancies are dwindling at the Super 8 Motel in Cape Girardeau, where all but 7 of its 49 rooms are reserved this weekend. Manager Sylvia Shott said she expects to rent those that remain within the week. Anna Leroux, front desk clerk at the Town House Inn, said she doesn't anticipate a vacancy in any of its 90 rooms, either.

Marsha Toll of Bellevue Bed and Breakfast in downtown Cape Girardeau said she was full for the weekend, and another downtown bed and breakfast, Rose Bed Inn, has one of three rooms open.

Martin said he has worked with the university in trying to inform parents about hotels outside Cape Girardeau -- but emphasized that should only happen after the city's rooms are full.

"Our goal is to make sure we're at 100 percent occupancy in our own city limits," Martin said.

Martin said he mainly has been working with Perryville and Sikeston.

The reservation numbers were not so high in Perryville. The Super 8 Motel there is booked to over two-thirds capacity, and general manager Doug Laws said he expects to fill those rooms with the spillover crowd from Cape Girardeau this weekend.

3,000 to 5,000 people

Diane Sides, director of university relations, has coordinated Family Weekend since 1990. She estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 family members will be in town over the weekend, but many of them just in for day visits.

There aren't any big musical acts as there have been in the past, Sides said, such as the Beach Boys, the Temptations and Davy Jones of the Monkees. Because of budget cuts, they're not able to have big-name acts this year.

"So we're not exactly sure how many parents to expect," Sides said.

Jane Stacy, director of Alumni Services and Development, is the coordinator for Homecoming, scheduled for Oct. 3 and 4. On Monday, her department surveyed hotels to see how things looked for Homecoming.

She said Drury Lodge had 30 rooms available, Drury Inn and Suites had 12, Hampton Inn had 70, Pear Tree Inn had 40, Super 8 had 40, Town House Inn had 40 and Sands Motel had two.

"Keeping in mind that most people make their reservations three weeks before the event, we're doing fine so far," she said. "It's not as bad as I thought right now. But people need to start making reservations now."

She said hotels and bed and breakfasts are listed on the Web site at www.semo.edu/alumni.

Only affects weekends

Dan Drury is president of MidAmerica Hotels, which owns the Holiday Inn as well as the Victorian Inn Hotel and Suites in Cape Girardeau. He acknowledged that the closing of the Holiday Inn would have an effect for peak times like Homecoming and Family Weekend.

But Drury said that it will have little effect during regular times of the year, when, he suggested, there are too many rooms.

"If I thought we needed more, I wouldn't drop from 188 to 102," he said. "The hotel business can't just stay open for the weekends. The community as a whole has got to do things to generate people wanting to come to the community."

Drury said people coming for visits to Cape Girardeau, after all, is good for more than just hotel owners.

"It helps everybody," he said, "restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores. Everybody benefits when there's a hotel room rented."

Staff writer Robert Goodier contributed to this report.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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