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Hotels offer temporary housing for health care workers, amid industry slowdown

According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association the "Hospitality for Hope" initiative identified around 2.3 million rooms near health care facilities.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Facing scores of empty rooms and a shocking drop in business, hotels in the DMV have turned to a campaign to offer units to health care workers as the spread of coronavirus continues.

Thomas Penny, who oversees nine different hotels in the area as president of Donohoe Hospitality Services, said that the dip in activity came at the worst time for the industry.

"March through May are the busiest times in the D.C. region and our tipped employees probably earn around 40% of their income then," he said. "We just came out of the slowest time and danced into our busiest time. Then COVID-19 hit."

According to Penny, the hotels that normally see over 90% occupancy this time of year are now around 10% full.

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"We’ve struggled to pay debt service and hotels are trying to prioritize maintaining health insurance for employees," he said. "These are uncharted times and for me as a leader of the division, this is what keeps me up at night."

With many other hotel managers facing similar situations, some in the industry have found a way to give back.

The "Hospitality for Hope" initiative has banded 15,000 hotels around the country together to offer temporary housing to health care workers and in some cases, areas that can be used for alternative care sites.

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WASHINGTON - The coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on the hospitality industry. Major hotel chains are getting cancellations left and right, and people are losing their jobs. According to an Oxford Economic Study, the decline of hotel guests could result in the loss of nearly 4 million jobs and a $300 billion hit to the industry.

According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which helped organize the effort, the initiative identified around 2.3 million rooms near health care facilities.

"We can all play a part and this is a small part that we’re trying to play," Penny said. "We just want to do everything we can to ensure that they get a good night's rest and get everything they need to fight the good fight for all of us." 

As part of the campaign, some of the hotels have offered health care workers reduced rates for the rooms.

Penny said the effort would not only provide housing for the workers, but also help for the hotel industry.

"Any time we have a guest in the hotel it affords us to have an employee there to service them," he said. "No matter how much we have lost personally there’s still an opportunity to do something for someone else." 

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