Hotels in downtown Raleigh are facing mounting cancellations after a roof fire on Monday night at the city's convention center.
The changes come after a city of Raleigh spokesperson said on Wednesday that all events scheduled for the rest of December at the convention center are canceled, causing nearby hotels to make adjustments.
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"We've all heard of the groups that unfortunately had to cancel this weekend. We did have some guest rooms tied to those events, and those groups have canceled," said David Palumbo, General Manager of the Raleigh Marriott City Center.
Two cheerleading competitions scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 6 and 7, a statewide cybersecurity symposium, and a trade show were the first to cancel.
Palumbo said impacted guest could be eligible for a refund on their room.
"We're going to be very flexible if their cancellation is directly tied to the incident at the convention center. All they have to do is let us know and we'll work through that with them. Absolutely," Palumbo said.
WRAL News has reached out to other hotels near the convention center to see if impacted guests will also be offered refunds. We have not yet received a response.
Palumbo notes that on an average week, roughly 40 to 50% of the business his hotel gets is tied to events happening at the convention center.
"Unfortunately, or fortunately, hotels are accustomed to dealing with difficult situations on a regular basis. Everybody's trained and prepared on how to react to this," Palumbo said.
