Hotel rooms free up

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Oceanside:

Oceanside hotels are full but not to bursting. By mid-afternoon, the Oceanside Day Inn on the freeway still had four rooms left, in stark contrast to the previous night when clerk Vanessa Canela said she turned away 50 people.

Tuesday, however, some guests left to go home or stay elsewhere and requests for rooms dwindled, Canela said. As of Tuesday afternoon, not one hotel had called her with a referral, she said, a sign that things had eased elsewhere as well.

A few other hotels did report full occupancy. One of them, the Oceanside Travelodge, booked its last remaining room about 2 p.m.

On Monday night owner Vinod Patel said he had turned many people away. “One was an old man with a cane. I didn’t know what to do. I had no rooms, so I turned him away. I had no choice.”

Like other hoteliers, Patel had loosened his strict anti-pet rule for the crisis. “I have ten dogs and three cats here now,” he said.

On Monday, people had gone as far as Anaheim to find rooms, but by Tuesday, they were beginning to return.

One told Patel prices were too high in Orange County, so he came back. Travelodge rooms rent for about $77 a night.

Normally, hotels in Oceanside are at about 60% occupancy on weekdays at this time of year, Patel said.

Patel and his wife Sushila said they thought the reason the evacuation appeared to go so well was because most refugees were staying with friends. Sushila Patel’s aunt had left an evacuation area to stay with the friend of a friend who was hosting as many as 30 people because of the fire.

Earline Dean, 52, and her 54-year-old husband evacuated from Fallbrook with their small dog in a cage. They had driven all over San Clemente looking for a hotel, got a reservation, and then were rejected because of the dog, Earline Dean said. Finally, a neighbor of a friend who lives in San Clemente -- a complete stranger -- took them in for the night, she said, adding: “So wonderful.”

The Deans were settling into the Travelodge for their second night away from home. Their auto club insurance would cover the bill, Earline Dean said.

-- Jill Leovy