When I see a potential hurricane brewing that may hit SoWal, I call our guests at our cottages and let them know they should fill their car up with gas as soon as possible to avoid lines at the gas stations; be ready to evacuate early to avoid crazy lines; and I assure them that if they are reasonable with leaving early, I'd take care of them (e.g., regarding any loss of payment for that part of their stay, even if it's not a "named" storm - I think rental agencies provide reimbursement to guests only if it's a "named storm" that hits the area, and I'm afraid by the time the guests know if a hurricane is going to hit the area, it may be too late to get a relatively smooth ride out of town). If we have to board up the cottages, they have to leave before we board them up, which can be a day or two before the storm. I once had some guests who didn't want to leave before a hurricane was possibly going to hit the area, but we had to make them leave so we could board up the windows and protect our cottage -- they were fine about it, though.
Most management companies offer travel insurance to protect guests from losing money during named storms. This is useful, but for me I'm happy to be a bit more flexible with guests to let them leave even if it's not 100% clear whether the storm will hit our area or not -- I certainly would get out of there if I was there, so I'll make it easy for our guests to do the same.
Hmmm, I guess I should post the hurricane evacuation route in the cottages. Ideally, I'd offer ideas for good places to stay once they're out of the area -- e.g., good hotels with pools/stuff to do/etc. Does anyone have any ideas of places/locations that are far enough away but that enable guests to get back to SoWal pretty quickly?
anyway.
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