It’s been almost two weeks since Hurricane Helene came through and caused unprecedented damage and destruction in our beloved Western North Carolina region. People and businesses have experienced unimaginable loss during this time, and we continue to pray for all those affected. We are also in awe of all the people, professionals, volunteers, donors and organizations who have supported our communities and continue to support them day-by-day. As you may have heard, we were very fortunate and blessed here at the Andon-Reid that the Inn was unharmed, our family and staff are safe and recovering and all essential services have been restored to our homes and our business. We couldn’t be more grateful to all those that made that happen and we hope all those affected by Helene and Milton in Florida have the same support that we did.
So many friends and former guests have reached out to us to offer their support to us and our community, and we are forever grateful for the outpouring of love. With that in mind, we wanted to provide a few updates on how things look in the Town of Waynesville and Haywood County, as well as let you all know how you can continue to support the recovery efforts from afar if you choose not to travel to our region in the near term.
Travel Advisories and Guidance
The Town of Waynesville is indeed open for business at this time. While many areas of our county are still in active emergency recovery, the businesses in our area are open. For the most accurate information about traveling to Waynesville during this time, we encourage you to follow updates from Visit Haywood, our tourism development authority, which is working closely with the town, county and chamber of commerce to provide the best information possible to those looking to travel to our area.
If you do decide to visit us, make sure to check your driving route with drivenc.org, particularly coming from Tennessee, as some major roads near the NC/TN line remain closed or limited for repairs.
As far as attractions in the area, unfortunately, the Biltmore Estate is currently closed to guests, but they have a great resource page providing updates on their recovery from the Hurricane damage. Also, the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed temporarily as crews work to assess the damage to the roads, trails and structures. Visit this link to get regular updates on the open/closed status of the BRP.
And we recently just got some great news from the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce in that the Apple Harvest Festival, our area’s most anticipated event of the year, is still on and scheduled for October 19 from 10-5 in downtown Waynesville! We are so grateful for the efforts made by the Chamber and the Town to keep this festival going this year as it will be a great time for our community to come together after a difficult period.
How can you help our region the with recovery efforts?
For those looking to help our region from afar, here are some ways you can help:
- Donate to the United Way of Haywood County to support the recovery efforts in our region.
- Donate to the Haywood Advancement Foundation to support small businesses in our county.
- Shop online or purchase a gift card or certificate at one of our many small businesses. See a great list at VisitHaywood.com.
- Plan a trip to Waynesville or Haywood County for 2025 and book in advance!
- Get your information on how things are going in our town and county from reputable and trustworthy sources like our Tourism Development Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Town and County Governments or local journalism outlets like The Mountaineer or The Smoky Mountain News. There’s a lot of disinformation on social media.
How can you support us?
We’ve also had a lot of people ask how they can specifically help us. We have been blessed to have no physical damage to our Inn, however our business has been severely impacted by cancellations during our busy season. Here are some options for helping the Andon-Reid and its staff:
- Plan and book a visit in advance for next year and/or during our historically slower months, like January, February or March.
- Purchase a gift certificate for a future stay.
- For any gift certificates purchased through November 30, 2024, we will donate 25% of the proceeds to the United Way of Haywood County to help with recovery efforts.
- Leave a tip or gratuity for our staff at this link and it will be shared equally between Shelly, Sharon and Bob!
- Our staff was unable to work for approximately 2 weeks due to the storm but thankfully, we hope to get back to normal schedules soon.
- Instead of cancelling your upcoming trip in November or December, consider converting your deposit into a gift certificate to use on a future stay.
- Subscribe to our Newsletter or Follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
- If you enjoyed your experience with us recently, consider leaving us a review on Tripadvisor or Google.
- Keep your eyes peeled for updates on when our October 2025 opens up to the public for booking (should be soon!).
What is the Andon-Reid doing to help with recovery efforts?
Without a doubt, this has been an incredibly difficult time for our community. Throughout the past two weeks, we have provided full refunds to all October reservations who requested a cancellation and have relaxed our deposit and cancellation policies. To help our region recover, we closed the Inn until October 9th and respected the calls from local authorities to discourage tourism to our region while the herculean task of emergency and rescue response, as well as recovery, proceeded. We also committed to all members of our staff that their jobs were safe, and we would support them through this ordeal. Innkeepers and owners Brenda and Peter, as well as Assistant Innkeeper Bob have all agreed to waive their pay for the next month and a half to help support the Inn through this time.
And we are going to continue to invest in our community to help us come back stronger and an even better place for tourists to visit in the future. As noted above, we are pledging 25% of all proceeds on gift certificates purchased through November 30, 2024, to the United Way of Haywood County. Guests receive the full value of the gift certificate, and the 25% will be donated by the Andon-Reid to the United Way.
We also plan on continuing to look for more ways to incorporate locally sourced ingredients and products into our breakfasts, snacks and overall amenities so we can support more great local businesses like Waynesville Soda Jerks, Copper Pot and Wooden Spoon, Blue Mountain Distributors, Darnell Farms, Christopher Farms, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Barber Orchards, Corner Station Olive Oil, Dillsboro Chocolate and so many more.
Additionally, we are bringing forward into 2024 an initiative that we were planning on starting in 2025. Beginning today, we will be launching a program to give back 1% of our total revenue each quarter to a different, deserving local charity doing good work in our region. For Q4 of 2024, we plan on donating the give back amount to the Haywood Advancement Fund (described above) to help support small business recovery in our county. We’ve been looking forward to starting this program for quite some time and we are excited to launch it today.
We have also implemented special rates for emergency and recovery response personnel and for displaced area residents that can be booked by calling 828-452-3089 through October 31, 2024.
For all of our loyal guests and followers, we thank you so much for your support during these trying times for our region. We can’t wait to host you at the Andon-Reid in the future.
Your Innkeepers,
-Brenda and Peter
