Open to everyone, but built primarily for its own workers.
- "For us it's a key step, because as we came here over a year ago, we knew we had to solve our own problem, not add to the problem," said Kevin Burke, president and CEO of Burke Construction. "The precursor to us planting our flag in this community is this facility you're looking at."
- $105/night vs $200/night for Williston motels; drops to $90/night for stays at least 30 days
- Boxed breakfast, free laundry
The company I work for has rooms at the Burke Lodge and it's a very well ran facility. The Williston area manager is a class act. We need more companies in the area like this.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking time to comment. I have said many, many time, professionally-run, state-of-the-art man-camps are the way to go in a boom.
ReplyDeleteThe South Heart area of North Dakota is banning man-camps but going ahead with a 80-unit hotel. The environmentalists in the area argue that the boom will go bust. If it does, the area now has an 80-unit hotel that will fail, but will remain standing. Man-camps, by their nature, will be gone when the boom ends. Faux-environmentalists can't have it both ways, although in the South Heart area they certainly try hard enough.
So the cost of these man camps is $90 night?! So who is paying this cost? Shared between employee/employer? Includes food, etc, correct?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but room rates for some parts of the country are $25 - $40. The cost of energy is about the same in North Dakota as the rest of the country; food costs are about the same as the rest of the country. Personnel costs are higher in boomtown, but not enough to move rates from $50 a night to $300/night.
DeleteThe highly rate of $300/night in motels is mostly due to supply and demand, not actual cost of service.
As someone who lives/works in Alberta (the land of workforce housing) it is generally the company that pays for the rooms. They can often negotiate a slightly lower rate for long contracts or large groups.
DeleteNow that you've said that, you remind me: yes, most of the man-camps, and the motels, for that matter, are rented out in large blocs by the companies. The casual traveler won't be bringing his family into a man-camp for overnight lodging (smile); and until recently it was very, very difficult to find a motel room in Williston. I haven't been there in awhile, so I don't know if that's still the case. They've built a lot of motels this past year.
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