Area hotels were packed over the weekend as residents and families fled the cold while power company crews worked to restore power to 30,000 homes that experienced outages in the week’s storms.

Thousands remained without power and many hotel rooms were still occupied as outages continued to affect more than 9,000 residents Monday morning.

Hotel staff and management reported streams of families pouring in Thursday afternoon, reserving rooms throughout the weekend in case repairs took longer than expected.

“We have been sold out Friday, Saturday, Sunday and probably again tonight,” Audrianna Bly, Springhill Suites manager, said Monday. “Everybody wanted to check in as early as they could because it was getting cold and they wanted to make sure they had a place to stay. This past weekend has been very busy.”

Bly praised the efforts of power company crews working to restore power and said the hotel staff were doing their best in a bad situation.

“All positive for them,” she said. “It’s an unfortunate event, but we’re trying to make the best of it.”

In Cranberry, the storm initially led to some early departures with company events ending and businesspeople leaving early to avoid the weather. These rooms were quickly filled with area families seeking a warm place to stay.

“A lot of my companies from my hotel left early because of the storms,” said Joanne Hildreth, director of sales at the Comfort Inn and Quality Inn in Cranberry.

Hildreth posted online that the hotel was offering discounted rates to residents fleeing outages and saw an immediate response.

“Within two-and-a-half hours, we were all sold out,” she said. “We’ve had about 20 dogs in our hotel at once.”

That was across about 70 rooms.

“We were trying to help the community out by giving them a discount,” Hildreth said.

Nearby, the Marriott North in Cranberry faced similar crowds, with visits extending through the weekend as outages stretched into Monday.

“It was really busy,” said Jennifer Corral, a Marriott North desk attendant. “We had a lot of families coming in and staying for a few nights and staying for longer than they expected.”

She said staff members worked to make everything feel normal for guests as the rooms rapidly filled.

While many have seen their power return and their stays at area hotels come to a close, thousands were still without power Monday, while crews work to finalize repairs.

Workers brought in for the job still need rooms as well as families wrap up their time away from home.

“We still have a couple rooms. We could definitely use more,” Hildreth said. “The tree services are still looking for rooms.”

As of Monday morning, power companies reported more than 9,000 customers still lacked power across the county.

“We still have people waiting,” Hildreth said. “It’s a day-by-day situation.”