Losing 3 B&Bs reduces options for overnight travelers

It's long been a challenge for travelers to find lodging in Wrangell, especially during the spring and summer months, but with the closure of three bed and breakfasts in the past six months, securing a place to stay has become even harder.

With the loss of those short-term-stay establishments, other tourist-related businesses are having trouble attracting clients to the island.

Little Bitty Getaway, Oceanside B&B and The Squawking Raven B&B have all closed since last August. The reasons are various, ranging from retirement to the pandemic.

For Theresa Allen, who owned Oceanside B&B, operating a bed and breakfast got to be too much work, and she made the decision to close it at the beginning of the year.

"I like to go up the river a lot and take time off and travel," Allen said. "It's just me at my house. I don't have anyone to take care of (the B&B, which is downstairs) and turn it over. Plus, I have grandkids now and the noise transfers from upstairs to downstairs and I didn't want to worry about that anymore."

Instead of leaving the space vacant, Allen converted it to a long-term rental, which her daughter now lives in. The switch made sense to Allen due to the tight housing market in Wrangell. Allen estimates that she served about 100 guests with the one-bedroom apartment featuring a sauna in the three years she operated as a B&B.

If her daughter moves out, Allen said she would consider changing back to a B&B or keep it as a long-term rental, especially with organizations like SEARHC needing lodging for contract workers, especially during the winter months.

Christie Jamieson decided to close The Squawking Raven B&B after more than eight years in business when the COVID-19 pandemic made her reevaluate what she was doing. She co-owned the business with her husband.

"I did all the cooking and cleaning and everything myself," Jamieson said. "We really had a good run of it. I know that when COVID hit in 2020, I didn't open it that season. It was too risky health-wise and there were too many restrictions."

She reopened after restrictions had been lifted but a diminished number of clients was one of the reasons she decided to close permanently last August. "To tell you the truth, I fell out of love with managing a B&B," Jamieson said. She also started working for the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, where she's focused her attention.

During the years that they operated The Squawking Raven, the Jamiesons occupied the upstairs portion of the house, which they had converted to an apartment. The downstairs was the B&B, with two full bedrooms, a washer and dryer and one-and-a-half bathrooms. They catered to honeymooners and wedding parties.

Itty Bitty Getaway opened in 2016 on Church Street. The one-bedroom, one-bathroom house could accommodate up to four people. A post in the Wrangell Community Group Facebook page in January from someone who had reservations for this year's Fourth of July festivities said the B&B was going off the rental market and had canceled her reservations, leaving them scrambling to find new accommodations.

The Sentinel was unable to reach the owners of Itty Bitty.

It's a struggle that Brenda Schwartz-Yeager is all too familiar with. She owns Alaska Charters and Adventures, offering jet boat tours which has a lot of independent travelers who come to town for several days during tourist season. Those independent travelers infuse a lot more money into the Wrangell economy than cruise ship passengers she said, because they're typically in town for more than just a day and they need lodging, food and other amenities.

"The cruise ship travelers, I'm not saying they don't have an impact, they do, but it's a fraction of what independent travelers are spending," Schwartz-Yeager said, adding that there are anywhere from 100 to 150 independent travelers in Wrangell on any given day during tourism season. "Cruise ships are maybe a quarter of my business. Right now, I'm having people call me and they want to come to Wrangell and spend five days, go fishing, go up to Anan, and they cannot find a place to stay. Accommodations are already maxed out. Those are dollars that aren't coming into me and the other businesses."

Lodging was so tight last year, she said, that she had clients rent camping gear from her just so they could come to Wrangell and have a place to stay. "Short of putting them on my couch, there was nowhere to put them."

Still, there are several lodging options available to travelers, if they can make reservations soon enough, such as the Stikine Inn, Wrangell Extended Stay, Grand View B&B, Reeve's Guest House and others, like the recently opened Cedar House Inn.

One B&B that closed during the pandemic was Rooney's Roost on the corner of Church and McKinnon streets. However, that property was recently sold to Debbie and Phil Powers, who've lived in Colorado the past 40 years. They've reopened the location as A Suite Spot B&B, which will be able to accommodate up to 13 people when all the rooms are available. A couple rooms are still being fixed up and aren't rentable just yet.

The Powers made the purchase as part of their retirement plan. "We were looking for some way ... to have some extra income (in retirement)," Debbie Powers said. She said they had checked out Wrangell and noticed the need for lodging. In the off-season months, she said they are considering offering extended-stay rentals.

Schwartz-Yeager said she can understand why some B&B owners would choose to close, but the news of A Suite Spot opening was good to hear.

"That is huge though. That's five more couples that can come here and stay, then that experience spreads when they go home (and talk about their trip)," she said, enticing others to come to Wrangell.