The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff Reports
Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:43 PM
Group Of Gatlinburg Wildfire Survivors Kicked Out Of Gatlinburg Hotel Friday
The press conference was called after news broke that TEMA had lost all emergency calls between state agencies the day of the fires, November 28, 2016.
It is important to note these were NOT 911 calls that were lost.
The organizer of the wildfire survivor group told a local Knoxville television station he booked a conference room at the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Gatlinburg on July 28 at 10:30 a.m. Once assembled, Gatlinburg Police were called and all survivors and news media were asked to leave.
The Gatlinburg Wildfire survivor group said they had been threatened with arrest if they did not leave the property. However, hotel management said in a letter to Local 8 News that they were mislead about the identity of the group.
In the letter, hotel management Hospitality Solutions Inc. said, "Based on information provided by the protest group, hotel employees believed that the event would be a Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA)-sponsored press conference, not knowing the actual identity of the group and its purposes for its press conference event."
President / CEO Logan Coykendall of Hospitality Solutions, Inc., cleared up the matter further and said, “We think it’s important to set the record straight. We respect citizens’ rights to seek information and be informed as our region continues to manage the aftermath of the November wildfires."
According to hotel management, the group refused to leave and the organizer encouraged employees to call police. The statement from management said the following:
"Upon discovering the group’s identity and purpose, Courtyard management staff asked the protest group’s organizers to discontinue their press conference and assured the group that it would not be charged for the space. A leader of the group then refused the hotel management’s request and urged hotel management to call the police to force the group to vacate, because news media on site attending the press event would 'love that even more.'”
Hospitality Solutions also said the group was never billed for use of the room, and they have no interest in receiving payment. Management also said the organizer of the survivor group attempted to still pay the hotel later that night.
"Interestingly, a leader of the protest group returned to the property and later contacted our team with an e-mail time-stamped at 11:35 p.m. Eastern the night of July 28 – a matter of hours after the incident – indicating he planned to send us payment for the event space, which he insisted that we accept and apply to his Marriott Rewards account. However, this payment will not be accepted, given the circumstances as they unfolded on July 28," said a statement from Hospitality Solutions.
