Wedding guests scramble after hotel taking NYC migrants cancels rooms
A Florida couple has had their wedding upended after an Orange County hotel — set to take in migrants from New York City — abruptly canceled the rooms she booked for her guests, she told The Post.
“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, 35, fumed.
Mifsud and Gary Moretti, 37, are both originally from New York, and plan to marry June 24 at Lippincott Manor in upstate Walkill, with 160 guests from throughout the country expected to attend, she said.
For the big day, the couple’s guests had a total of 30 rooms booked at The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, about 20 minutes from their venue.
The newlyweds, along with 10 bridesmaids, five groomsmen and guests from California, Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester had all planned to stay at the hotel, and the couple had paid for transportation to and from the party.
“We signed a contract. We had a legal contract to have those rooms,” Moretti said.
“We just wanted everybody to be safe and have a good time.”
But everything was upended when they learned the Crossroads was set to accept migrants from NYC, who are being bused to hotels in Westchester and the Hudson Valley as the city struggles to deal with the influx of immigrants pouring over the border.
So they called the hotel and learned their reservation had been tossed aside. The hotel told them to call Choice Management, which oversees the facility.
“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 recalled, adding only one guest had gotten notice of the cancellation.
“Some people have cancelled already,” she said.
“It’s bittersweet.
“It puts a damper on it because we’d love for those people to come.”
The Crossroads is one of several hotels believed to have booted nearly two dozen homeless veterans in favor of incoming migrants — which which it’s believed the hotels rake in as much as $190 a night.
“It’s complete chaos. We do not feel like they are housing the migrants out of the kindness of their heart. It’s just for the money. That’s how we feel,” said Mifsud, who along with Moretti is now scrambling to find new accommodations for those who can still make it to their big day.
It’s at least the second set of soon-to-be newlyweds whose wedding has been thrown into chaos by the migrant crisis.
A Queens couple claimed the 37 rooms they booked months in advance at the Crossroads Hotel for guests of their May 20 wedding were also suddenly canceled.
“What we feel right now is, we feel very cast aside,” groom-to-be Sean Plunkett told CBS.
A spokesman for Choice Hotels, the brand under which the Crossroads operates, said, “All affected guests will be contacted for assistance with rebooking their upcoming reservations.”
Further questions were referred to Crossroads, which did not immediately respond to a message.
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