2 Downtown Memphis hotels close doors
Hu. Hotel, Doubletree weren’t required to shut down
The Hu. Hotel and the Doubletree hotel in Downtown Memphis have both decided to temporarily close for business as more people are asked to stay at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
While hotels are considered essential businesses and are not required to close, hotels both locally and nationally have watched their occupancy rates slide drastically this month more coronavirus cases have been discovered.
Nationwide, many hotels have made similar decisions. Hotel giant Marriott International announced last week plans to furlough tens of thousands of employees across the globe after “experiencing significant drops in demand at properties globally with an uncertain duration.”
Within a week after the first case of coronavirus was found in Shelby County, occupancy at local hotels was estimated to have dropped by about 75%.
Hu. Hotel at 79 Madison Ave. closed last week, Kevin Kane, CEO of Memphis Tourism confirmed. The Doubletree at 185 Union Ave., which was already planning to close in June for a $47 million renovation, quickly followed.
“They are going to change the whole feel, style with an extensive renovation,” Kane said of the Doubletree. “They went ahead and shut down early because with the situation the way it is right now, we might as well start and get rolling now while there’s nobody traveling instead of waiting.”
With hotels closing and cutting hours, Kane said an estimated 35,000 hospitality workers in Shelby County will be impacted either by layoffs or furlough before the coronavirus crisis ends.
Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree. stennett@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.