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Renaissance Hotel regains power following Friday's outage

First Energy expects to have power restored to all affected buildings by 8 p.m. Sunday.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Renaissance Hotel tweeted that power has been restored following a major outage Friday. 

Brunch at Brim House is back on and The Heights will be open Saturday night for snacks and cocktails.

The hotel was one of five buildings to lose power after contractor working for the city of Toledo hit four power lines downtown Friday morning.

Crews spent the day working to figure out what happened, but repairs for the affected buildings aren’t likely until Sunday night.

Chris Eck with First Energy said that the goal is to have everything back up and running by 8 p.m. Sunday evening.

While several of the buildings impacted by the power outage are closed for the weekend, the Renaissance Hotel runs 24/7. 

Currently, they are running on a generator to keep business going as usual.

The Renaissance Hotel was looking forward to a jam packed weekend with a concert, baseball and beautiful weather, but plans changed when the power was cut.

"We were sold out last night and of course we're sold out today and tomorrow,” said Brian Crooks, General Manager of the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Toledo. “So there is a huge impact not only on business, but just the quality of service that we can provide."

With power out, guests waited in the lobby with their bags as the elevators stood still. Employees were forced to adjust on the fly working with what made guest comfortable through the inconvenience.  

Renaissance leaders couldn't prevent the outage, but they did everything they could to react reasonably for guests bringing food, drinks and accommodating their plans as best they could, even for a wedding scheduled Friday night.

Credit: wtol

"We had a wedding that was scheduled indoors,” said Crooks. “We moved it outside, fortunately we have probably the most beautiful day of the year for it so it's going to turn out perfectly. And really we’re just over communicating to our customers what is going on and what we're going to do to make it a little bit more comfortable for them."

Those staying at the hotel Friday said they understand the challenges from the power outage caused by a third party.

"It's been great just maneuvering around the different charging stations because when your phone's dying your dying," joked Robin Singh, a guest staying at the Renaissance.

Robin found one outlet running off a backup generator to charge his phone. He said he's stayed at the hotel before and their customer service has never let him down. In fact, he said he’s impressed with how little this impacted his stay.

"Life throws unforeseen circumstances at you sometimes and you just have to adapt,” said Singh. “The good thing here is they have a very great professional staff and they've really been accommodating."

While they are doing their best, the outage did close their two restaurants, meaning a big loss of business for a bustling Friday night. The Brim House and The Heights had to send staff home for the night and close the popular rooftop bar on one of the nicest days we’ve seen in a while. 

Hotel leaders brought in a generator to power the entire hotel and the restaurants have since reopened.

"We plan on whether the city is going to get us up and running or not we will be fully operational tonight at some point," said Brian Crooks on Friday night.

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