As hotel rooms rapidly fill up for the Sinbad Soul Music Festival, the University of the Virgin Islands announced Friday that it will make dormitory rooms available as part of a five-night package to accommodate visitors to the island.
The package includes a room with linens, three meals per day and use of campus amenities. The cost is $450 per person for a single room for five nights and $375 per person for a double room.
The festival, scheduled May 26-31, is expected to draw 8,000 people.
The island has about 4,000 hotel rooms — and it's hard to find one available for those five days. That has set off a scramble for accommodations of any kind.
Steve Houchens of McLaughlin-Anderson Villas said, "We're booked solid."
He said his firm provided 20 to 30 villas free of charge for four nights for the performers and Sinbad's production people.
Randall Doty, rooms division manager at Sapphire Beach Resort, said, "We're totally booked — everyone is."
Beverly Nicholson, executive director of the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism
Association, said she was told that of the 1,500 rooms committed to the tour operators, about 80 percent of them have been booked.
"But Friday is the day that payment has to be made or the reservations get canceled," she said, "so we'll see what the real numbers are."
Nicholson said she expected to have more of a complete picture of the hotel bookings by Wednesday, March 31.
Some residents are making their homes, condos or apartments available for rent during the festival through the Hotel Association. Others are negotiating their own private deals.
One woman who lives at Sapphire is taking advantage of the room shortage by renting her efficiency at $100 a night for five nights to the son of a friend.
UVI will make 150 beds available with its all-inclusive package.
Registration and reservations for packages can be made via Internet by clicking here.