BATON ROUGE – Some hotels have canceled bookings for guests not aligned with the Ida recovery effort, sources have told the WBRZ Investigative Unit.

Hotel bookings through the second week of October have been automatically canceled so rooms can be used for either first responders or utility workers, with electrical grid workers getting priority.

Marriott canceled all rooms for people not aligned with recovery through the weekend of October 2 and 3, which includes the LSU-Auburn game at Tiger Stadium.

At the Courtyard by Marriott Baton Rouge Acadian Centre/LSU Area hotel – the Courtyard on Acadian at I-10 – all 149 rooms were booked by Entergy through the first week of October.

“We wanted to personally contact you to make you aware that Hurricane Ida has impacted our property.  We are not able to accept your arrival and your reservation has been cancelled,” an email alerted guests with reservations at the hotel in early October.

An employee at the hotel confirmed the entire hotel was being booked with companies doing storm response work and all other bookings were canceled.

A hotel operator told WBRZ Marriott properties in Baton Rouge and Greater New Orleans were canceling reservations and re-booking hotels for storm response efforts.

“It's not just ours, it’s every hotel in the city,” the person at the hotel said.

Hotel cancelations will likely impact reservations for at least three LSU home football games: The McNeese State game on September 11th ; the Central Michigan game on the 18th and the Auburn game on October 2.

Visiting universities will typically reserve blocks of rooms for athletics officials and teams.  LSU did not respond to a call about what, if anything, it was planning for the three upcoming visiting teams. 

Auburn University did not respond to an email when this story was originally posted.

Contract nurses complained to WBRZ earlier this week, they were having trouble booking rooms day-by-day after the storm.  Medical personnel hired to help care for COVID patients at Baton Rouge hotels were staying in the city and extending reservations on a nightly basis but were told by hotel operators this week, storm response bookings claimed all open rooms for the foreseeable future.

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