Hotels Jammed with Carmageddon Guests

Newport Beach - Carmageddon may be tough for Los Angeles drivers, but it's an economic gift to hotel operators in Newport Beach.

Six major Newport Beach hotels began offering a package of discounts for this weekend and advertised those deals during the past week in the Los Angeles area. As the closure of 10 miles of the San Diego (405) Freeway from the San Fernando Valley to the westside neared, the hotels were just about sold out.

"Put it this way, if they're not already sold out they will be sold out this weekend," Debbie Snavely, general manager of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa, told City News Service.

The Marriott, which is next to Fashion Island, is usually a popular destination for vacation-goers in the summer, but the "Carmageddon" deal the hotel offered for this weekend still boosted business, Snavely said.

"It's traditionally strong for us this time of year, but we wanted to reach out and give (Los Angeles residents) a better value under the circumstances. I mean, we're in the service industry, right?" Snavely asked.

The six Orange County hotels put together a package of "Carmageddon" deals with help from Visit Newport Beach, a nonprofit organization that promotes tourism for the city. Visit Newport Beach put together a weeklong ad campaign for print, radio and online.

"It was a real flash campaign," that included a "viral video," said Caroline Rustigian-Bruderer of Visit Newport Beach.

"We felt it was a great opportunity to remind Angelenos that Newport Beach is just a short drive away," she said.

The discounts from the six Newport Beach hotels "will get people out of the traffic, and they can come here for the weekend, relax, and then when it's over you're home in an hour or so, and there are no airports to deal with," Rustigian-Bruderer said.

The hotels are offering perks such as free breakfasts, free valet parking and even a free night in some rooms, she said.

"The LA market forgets sometimes that Newport Beach is so close and it has such a completely different environment -- a Riviera feel," Rustigian-Bruderer said.