In the middle of fires, San Diego, Palm Springs Resorts see a rush from Angelenos

January is generally an easy month to book a hotel room in southern California. Not this year.

Pushed by fires that uprooted hundreds of thousands of residents of the County Los Angeles, legions of displaced families and individuals seize rooms in the surrounding counties, especially along the coast and in the desert. Beyond those who are obliged to evacuate compulsory, many others, including many families and owners of anxious animals, left due to poor air quality or general distrust of the precarious state of the county.

“It was crazy,” said Marie Corbett, director of group sales at 14 West Boutique Hotel in Laguna Beach. “I had people in tears … You can see that their emotions are so raw. And then they have their animals. There was a lady whose dog bit his hand. The stress.”

Corbett said at 2 p.m. on Friday 14, the 70 West hotel rooms were “roughly reserved” for the night. She has guessed that 80% or more guests came from Los Angeles in recent days.

Because the inventory of the hotel in the region is so large and January is generally so slow along the coast, many dwellings say they still have rooms to offer, in many cases to emergency discounts. And some Angelenos who left the city in the middle of the week are starting to come back.

For more information on available hotels, Discover Los Angeles has compiled a list that includes Dozens of properties of the county of the. The city of Anaheim has a list with 39 hotels. San Diego Tourism Authority has a list with more than 40 more. VisitgreaterPalmsprings.com has a list with Over 30 hotels. There is A list of Santa BarbaraAlso. Some of these lists include detailed information on rates, and all are likely to change as the rooms fill up. Meanwhile, Airbnb teams up with group 211LA to provide free emergency housing to many people who were moved and at the first stakeholders.

The sudden diaspora has already filled numerous dwellings and pushed the occupancy rates to the sky. And in desert communities like Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, it was already a busy season. The result is a flood of reluctant travelers – people who have the chance to afford to book short -term hotels but who always prefer to be at home.

“We couldn't really get out,” said Mike Muney, 33, from Mar Vista, explaining the departure of his family on Friday.

“We feel so lucky. We know so many people who have lost houses, “said his wife, Libby Muney, 35.

While they were talking, they stood with their son Nate, 1, and their yellow labrador, Winnie, near the entrance to the Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort to Dana Point. The sky above was a brilliant blue, empty of helicopters and ash. Inside the hotel, staff members had converted a conference room into a children's playground with “Bluey” on the big screen and a Twister game placed on the floor.

Hotel marketing director Andrew Sutrisno said it was supposed to be a slow weekend, with an occupation probably less than 50%. But the fire exodus has mainly completed the 378 rooms of the property for the weekend. Sutrisno estimated that most hotel customers are from Los Angeles. The January prices of the hotel usually start about $ 300.

“Wednesday evening was the biggest jump,” said Sutrisno. “Until you see it in person – you see your hotel suddenly filling out – it's difficult to imagine.”

“This hotel was incredible,” said Mike Muney later.

“Two people I know went to Palm Springs. Another friend comes here,” said Libby Muney.

On Ocean Avenue in Laguna Beach, Ansgar Fremiel, 27, and Julia Fremiel, 32, and their children – Emely, 7; Liam, 3 years old; And Hailey, 2 years old-may have looked like any other family heading to the beach on a Friday afternoon. But they were only in town, said Ansgar, because “we were evacuated from the Hollywood hills”, about 60 miles in the north.

“We have just received the furthest than we can do,” said Ansgar Fremiel. “With three children, we are not so fast when it comes to getting into the car.”

The Fremiels, relieved by the submission of the Sunset Fire, hoped to return home for the weekend. But many families will stay away longer. While these emergency travelers make short -term decisions on the moment when going, when staying and when coming back, hoteliers juggle more variables than usual.

Hôteliers are also linked by the anti-pouring laws of the State, which limit prices to 10% beyond the prices in place before the declaration of local or state emergency. Even if an emergency is in a county and a hotel is in another, this law can apply, officials of the California Hotel & Hodging Assn. said.

The County of Orange attracted many of those who were fleeing fires from County. Here, three guests from Los Angeles sit near a home at the El Caminant bar and bungalows in Capistrano Beach in Dana Point.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

At the Pacific Edge Hotel in 120 rooms, also in Laguna Beach, an office employee reported on Friday that “we were 18% of occupancy on Tuesday. We have been 100% the last two nights ”. Customers who have been moved by fire, said the clerk, generally pay 25% in usual rates, with station fees and pet costs.

For Fairfax Buchanan Banks, 36, who lives near the USC and West Adams, the decision to leave “was summed up in air quality … It was raining ashes”.

And pets were a factor. Buchanan Banks has a 16 -year -old dog and male cat (named dad) struggling with viral bronchitis. Her best friend had two dogs. The two animal owners liked the idea of ​​clean air, open spaces. They had doubts about squatting indefinitely with a friend – and, Buchanan Banks noted: “We are fortunate to have the means to move.”

They tried Joshua Tree and found nothing that corresponded to their situation. But in the 29 palm trees nearby, they caught an Airbnb rental house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a washer, a dryer and a fenced courtyard. Thursday, they established plans.

Friday, they drove, facing accidents for pets as you go. However, Buchanan Banks said: “As we have exceeded Redlands, I noticed that my sinuses and my throat are clearing.”