Wednesday, October 31, 2007
It’s no secret that the University begins preparations for homecoming months before the event. But the University is not the only entity that has to make its homecoming plans far in advance.
Visitors who plan to stay for the weekend have their own pressing issues to deal with: Where will they stay after the day’s festivities have come to a close?
That’s where people like Randy Disoso and Brandon White come in. Disoso is the manager of the Lawrence Econo Lodge, 2222 W. Sixth St., and White manages the local Holiday Inn, 200 McDonald Dr. Both hotel managers said that rooms sold quickly every year for homecoming weekend.
“Usually after the rooms open up, they’re gone in a day or two,” Disoso said. “We started selling the rooms in July, and by August we were sold out.”
White said it was not unusual for the Holiday Inn to be sold out of rooms every weekend when there was a home football game, but there was a definite increase in demand over homecoming weekend.
“I’d say we usually have to turn down 50-100 people per night leading up to homecoming,” White said. “Normally it wouldn’t be so many.”
Hotels are not the only businesses in Lawrence that can expect an increase of customers during homecoming. Restaurants and bars are affected by the increase, as well.
“Usually on busy weekends like homecoming, we like to feature interesting specials, like nice beef and fish,” said Ann Turner, manager of Teller’s, 746 Massachusetts St. “We usually have good specials on weekends, but during homecoming, we’ll have special dishes like Kobe beef.”
Ryan Lantz, general manager of Abe and Jake’s Landing, 8 E. Sixth St., said homecoming crowds varied year to year.
“The size of the crowd also depends on who KU is playing. This year, it’s Nebraska, and Nebraska fans travel well, since it’s so close,” Lantz said.
Jerry Neverve, owner of the Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., said the incoming crowd was a general mix of locals and out-of-towners.
“People come back to Lawrence. They want to go out and have a good time,” Neverve said. “It’s kind of hard to tell, though, how many of those people aren’t from around here.”
Lantz said he thought the ratio of locals to non-locals depended on the location of KU’s opponent in the homecoming game.
“If a team’s from a long distance away, it’s not likely the fans are going to travel, or will want to stay after the game,” Lantz said. “Nebraska is about two hours away, so the fans may want to stay.”
To prepare for the increased number of customers, Disoso makes sure every employee is available to work the weekend of homecoming.
“When you get an influx of people like this, you want to make sure that everyone’s needs are met quickly, and that they’re able to get the service they expect,” Disoso said.
In addition to making sure Holiday Inn is fully staffed, White has his staff prepare welcome gifts for guests.
“It’s a way for us to say, ‘Thank you for choosing to stay here,’ ” White said. “I don’t know yet what we’ll do this year, but last year we had welcome bags with snacks and bottles of water in them.”
Unlike hotels, popular restaurants in town are usually filled to capacity every weekend, so increasing staffing on Homecoming is not a solution, according to Turner.
“Everyone working just has to work a little faster,” she said.
Peggy Kritos, manager of the Mad Greek Restaurant, 907 Massachusetts St., agreed with Turner.
“We’re always busy, so we always have lots of staff working,” Kritos said. “On big weekends, we just prepare more food and have it ready to go.”
Neverve said he enjoyed the extra customers.
“It’s a nice bump in business,” Neverve said, “We always look forward to it.”
— Edited by Matt Erickson
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