The fire declared in Benahavís has meant that all the hotels in San Pedro Alcántara, the closest population center, are full. They hang the “no rooms” signs and have even had to increase the staff. in some of them. The high season has brought together families who, despite having the space set up in the San Pedro Tent to sleep, went looking for a space with more privacy or where you can shower.
With the “no rooms” hanging they are in the Hostel Avenue 31, a few meters from the place enabled by the administrations for families who have no better option to rest. There Sonia, one of the owners, assures that all the rooms are complete, “the Benahavís City Council has called us, in case there is any free room left in which they could accommodate the neighbors”. Despite this, they have “a couple of married couples” at the hostel and they are doubling shifts and have even had to ask their relatives for help.
In the Hostal La ColoniaThey assure that they only had one room available on Wednesday night, in which they were able to accommodate a couple from Benahavís. During the morning, says Ana, the receptionist, she has not stopped receiving calls from families from the neighboring municipality looking for a place to spend the night, without success because they are 100% occupied.
In larger hotels, such as the Hotel Barceló, they affirm that on Wednesday night “we did have many families from Benahavís, but this Thursday we have not been able to accommodate them despite the fact that they have wanted to renew because we have all the rooms complete”. Thus, in many of the hotels they have even made waiting lists in case any of the rooms were canceled, however, hotel occupancy in San Pedro Alcántara is 100%.
Meanwhile, in the San Pedro tent there are up to 500 places to spend the night, according to the deputy director general of Emergencies 112 Andalucía, Juan Ramón Rodríguez. There, at noon, James and Silvia Paul assured that they would look for a hotel if they could not return home that same night.