TOPHOTELNEWS Live Blog roundup: How hotels are helping during the corona crisis

by | 15 Apr 2020 | General News

Four Seasons, New York. Hotels around the world are stepping to offer support in these difficult times.

Hotels with heart: From food and cleaning supply to donation to offering rooms as quarantine units or as a place to stay for healthcare workers, hotels around the world are stepping up.

While the hospitality industry has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, many hotels around the world are doing their part to make a bad situation a little easier to bear.

Rounding up info shared by the hotel community on the TOPHOTELNEWS Covid19 live blog, we find out which steps hotels are taking to ease the stress caused by the coronavirus.

Donations of unused food supplies

Many hotels getting ready to close their door temporarily have donated their unused food supplies to staff or local charities. Event organisers facing last-minute cancellations of large dinners and parties as well as airlines have done the same, thus offering their staff and those in need welcome help in this time of crisis.

“We had planned for a 600-person plated lunch and a 1,000-person dinner,” said Kayla Petsche, Pacificwild’s director of sales. “But with the cancellations and food already ordered, we wanted to ensure our community benefited by donating the food to a local meal-provider like Blanchet House.”

Welcoming healthcare staff and supporting hospitals

It is undeniable that healthcare workers around the world deserve help and support available in these trying times. To do their part in this, hotels have started offering free or reduced-rate stays. The Four Seasons Hotel New York, for example, which is temporarily closed now, will house doctors, nurses and other medical workers free of charge. Other hotels, like the Gran Hotel Colon and the Marriott Auditorium, are supporting hospitals by offering rooms to mild-case coronavirus patients.

The cruise industry is also doing its part. Carnival Cruise Line has offered to provide shifts for use as temporary hospitals for non-COVID patients, so they don’t risk infection due to a hospital stay.

Being there for staff

Although many hotels have furloughed their employees, especially the larger groups have pledged to support their teams at this time.

Hyatt has set up its Hyatt Care fund, to offer funds to staff who are in financial distress due to hours being cut. Accor has launched a similar program and has even promised to foot the hospital bills of employees who don’t have health insurance but need treatment for COVID-19.