Center City hotels say plenty of rooms available for pope visit

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- If you thought every hotel room was booked well in advance of Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia, think again. Some Center City hotels are saying that's far from the case.

Hotel managers expected to be sold out for the weekend, but with the papal visit fast approaching, hotels in the city are putting out the word that rooms are still available, and, at this point, they are hoping they sell.

Anthony Geistwite from the Sofitel Hotel tells us, "We are trying to push inventory. We are trying to let everyone know that Center City still has a lot of availability."

Hotel managers tell Action News a lot of hotel rooms are still available in the city the week of the World Meeting of Families and the papal visit.

They expected very high demand - even to sell out - but so far that has not happened.

Geistwite says, "I think people thought it's going to be a nightmare - the whole week of World Meeting of Families as well as the weekend of the pope visit."

The Sofitel still has plenty of rooms available for the weekend without restrictions like a minimum night's stay.

Geistwite explains, "For the papal weekend, we have anywhere from about 70 to about 85 rooms available per night. Obviously, it depends, it fluctuates on different nights from Friday to Sunday, but there is still quite a bit of availability."

The Sonesta Hotel on Market Street is also putting out the word that they too have availability and people shouldn't let tight security keep them away.

Michele Simpson from The Sonesta tells us, "It's our belief that a lot of the security has scared people away with the road closures etcetera, and that's understandable, but we want to tell people we are open for business and we still have rooms available."

And hotel managers tell us rates have been reduced to prices typical during any convention - still a few hundred dollars, but not a thousand dollars a night.

Simpson says, "I think, initially ... those type of rates were out there, but I think that you'll see that a lot of hotels have reduced their rates."

And Geistwite says, "You're looking at anywhere from about $250 to $480 depending on the day of the week and things like, and that's probably a standard rate in the city for any convention."

World Meeting of Families organizers tell us there are rooms for under a hundred dollars available using some discount websites. With so many rooms still not booked, watch for the hotels to launch promotional campaigns in the coming days to let people know there are still plenty of places available to stay.