A New York hotel has canceled a block of more than 35 room reservations made months ago by an engaged couple for their big day after the hotel began accommodating migrants last week.
The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, about 70 miles north of Manhattan, began accepting migrants on Thursday after New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to house them in hotels in Orange and Rockland Counties.
The engaged couple from Queens is now scrambling to secure hotel rooms for their 60 guests before their wedding on May 20, less than a week away.
“What we feel right now is, we feel very cast aside,” groom-to-be Sean Plunkett said. “This is a whole, big hot-button issue, but at this point we really just want what’s best for us and our friends and family,” he added.
The hotel did not inform them that their room block had been canceled, according to the couple. After hearing that the hotel planned to house migrants, they said they reached out and were told that their reservations, and all other block reservations for the next few months, had been canceled.
“We figured it would be a situation where they’d be there, we’d be there and it’d be fine,” Plunkett said.
The couple reportedly had guests from Ireland, Ecuador, Japan, Canada, and England planning on staying at the hotel. The Queens couple was not the only fiancés facing the same situation. According to the New York Post, a Florida couple also had their block of 30 rooms canceled at The Crossroads Hotel ahead of their June wedding to make room for migrants.
“We felt discarded, disappointed and angry that they just tossed us aside to make an extra dollar for the hotel. It’s just not right,” Deanna Mifsud, a bride-to-be, said.
The couple also said they weren’t adequately notified by the hotel, telling the Post that only one guest had been informed their reservation was canceled. “We were on hold for 45-plus minutes and were ultimately told, ‘We can’t do anything for you, bye bye,’ and we were hung up on,” Mifsud said.
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Additionally, a local Christian ministry had to relocate its services after losing access to the building, CBS New York reports.
Choice Hotels chain, which includes brands like Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, and Cambria Hotels, operates The Crossroads Hotel. According to CBS New York, after the outlet aired a story on the last-minute cancellations, a Choice Hotels spokesperson said affected guests had been contacted and the chain is “ensuring they are assisted with their accommodations.”
Orange County and the City of Newburgh on Friday filed three lawsuits in an attempt to block the relocation of migrants to hotels there, according to NBC 4. They are suing New York City, The Crossroads Hotel, and Ramada.
