Many hotel rooms still available for papal visit

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- There is room at the inn.

In an update on Tuesday, we learned there are still many hotel rooms available for Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia on September 26th and 27th.

"I'm seeing a lot of hotels that are sold out, but I'm also seeing a lot of hotels with 50 or 60 percent of inventory that's available," said Ed Grose of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association.

Grose is confident rooms will sell out, and the reason for the current availability may come as a surprise.

"We started to see the people from the World Meeting of Families, a lot of them, were not opting to stay thru the weekend," he said.

Billboards are going up this week to spark interested in the papal visit and hopefully help fill hotel rooms.

Also Tuesday, Mayor Michael Nutter announced another event for the World Meeting of Families: a forum for mayors at La Salle University.

He dismissed a recent Washington Post article, which was highly critical of Philadelphia's planning for the papal visit, as old news.

"I'd really like us to turn that page. No disrespect to the Washington Post folks, but that story was weeks behind," Nutter said. "Takes some folks a little while to catch up."

The mayor says the focus needs to be on the opportunity ahead.

What's still unclear how many people will come and stay to see the Pope. It is an open event, with no tickets needed. Tens of thousands are expected to arrive by charter buses, but WMOF organizers said Tuesday it still cannot say how many buses will arrive.