COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Eric Gray, the GM at Courtyard in Vinings says he has seen this just once before in his 25 years in the hotel business.
“This morning I was reflecting back. It was Hurricane Katrina,” Gray said to Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.
This time it’s Hurricane Milton. Floridians fleeing the storm up Interstate 75 are arriving in the metro Atlanta area by the tens of thousands.
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Some came to the Courtyard By Marriott in Vinings. It’s one of 50 hotels across Cobb County that are rolling out the red carpet.
“This is a really large storm, and it’s something everybody has been watching,” Holly Quinlan said.
Quinlan is the CEO of Cobb Travel & Tourism, which works hand and hand with the local hospitality industry.
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They just launched a massive social media campaign to make it easier for Florida residents to find hotel rooms. On Wednesday morning, they reached out to the general managers to survey how many rooms they had available.
The Courtyard had no vacancies for Wednesday night but if any Florida residents turn up here, Gray knows where to send them.
“We’ve been sharing information all day and contacting each other. Who has which rooms, what’s the availability, which days. There’s a schedule at work behind the scenes of where people can go and where we can direct them,” Gray said.
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