Pandemic challenges stymie struggling hotels
When it’s open, the Todd House bed-and-breakfast in Beaver County offers rooms at a rate of around $100 per night, with the option of private or shared baths. In keeping with the house’s Victorian theme, most rooms come with working fireplaces and marble sinks, and bathrooms feature clawfoot tubs.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned charming details like a front porch furnished with white wicker chairs — usually a tourist draw — into major risk factors.
“There’s a lot of Victorian stuff around so that people can touch it, feel it, look at it,” employee Linda Jones said. “It would be very, very difficult for us to sanitize every little thing in there.”
The bed-and-breakfast, closed since February, isn’t planning to reopen until the health situation in the United States — not just Western Pennsylvania — improves significantly.
Running a hospitality business isn’t easy even when there isn’t a pandemic, and restrictions imposed by the spread of the coronavirus that triggers COVID-19 have had devastating effects. Tourism bureaus across the country estimate millions of dollars have been lost because of the pandemic, and trade publication The Hotel Guru projects an average room occupancy rate of 43.28% in 2020, down from 66% in 2019.
It’s not just small-scale operations that have made the decision to shut down. A call to the Distrikt Hotel Pittsburgh, which is one of Hilton’s boutique “Curio Collection” hotels, connects to an automated message explaining that the Downtown hotel has suspended operations indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the four-star Hotel Fairmont Pittsburgh, also in Downtown, informed the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry on June 26 that it expected to be extending a previously announced six-month layoff of over 50 employees. The Fairmont has been closed since May and expects to
reopen in a “very limited” capacity on July 14, subject to change based on worsening pandemic conditions in Allegheny County.
Hotels that are staying open are finding the going rough.
The Hampton Inn in Butler, which is, among other things, used as an overnight stop by employees of some trucking companies, has remained open with an average of around 30% occupancy, rising to over 50% in the past week, according to guest services manager Reed Elder.
Hampton Inn’s parent company, Hilton, made $159 million in the first quarter last year. This year, the same period yielded net income of just $18 million — an 88.7% decrease.
Pool and gym facilities at the Butler hotel are open, but the breakfast buffet has been replaced with to-go bags. Masks are required for employees (but not guests), and when a guest checks out, cleaning staffers spray the room with disinfectant — then wait 48 hours before returning to do a thorough cleaning.
Per a relatively recent memo from Hilton leadership, the hotel staff must clean public areas every two hours, regardless of whether they’re being used. “Highrisk” objects like vending machines and ice dispensers are cleaned once an hour or more often.
“If I see someone in the sweet shop or sitting at a table in our lobby area, then as soon as they get up and leave, we go over and we wipe that down,” Mr. Elder said.
Several businesses have hired medical experts to guide a safe reopening. Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, the luxury getaway in Fayette County, has reopened for business after closing down on March 17. The resort enlisted Dr. Gavin Skinner McGregor, an expert in infectious diseases, to develop safe operating procedures, said Christopher Baran, the resort’s sales and marketing director.
“He reviewed all of our procedures … over the course of about four weeks, then we proceeded to hire staff back subsequently and get them trained on the new procedures for both cleaning and disinfecting,” Mr. Baran said.
The upscale Kimpton Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh in Downtown has been collaborating with the Cleveland Clinic and Ecolab to develop a pandemic safety protocol, which involves a mask policy and the removal of certain amenities that pose a transmission risk, like valet services and communal coffee and wine events.
Rooms at the hotel usually go for around $200 per night or more. Now, the price is hovering closer to $150 for a night in a standard room.
Mr. Baran said visitors’ lengths of stay at Nemacolin have been about the same as under normal circumstances — an average of around three days.
The resort also has instituted a block of time after guest checkout before rooms are cleaned, and has rearranged dining facilities for socially distanced service. The resort is offering all of its activities and guest amenities, with time scheduled for cleaning of facilities between times different guests use them.
Nemacolin’s mask policy includes a requirement that guests wear a face covering while in public spaces. Mr. Baran said there haven’t been any major issues of guest compliance.
The Kimpton Hotel Monaco is offering a special “Peace of Mind” package for guests looking for “extra reassurance that his/her room is clean and safe,” according to general manager Rob Mallinger.
The package, which starts at around $170 per night, includes amenities to ensure that visitors can minimize their interactions with other guests and even their need to leave their room, Mr. Mallinger wrote in an email. It includes an assurance that the room will be on a floor with less than 50% occupancy and comes with a complimentary self-cleaning kit and bottle of wine, as well as an in-room Keurig coffee machine.
Inter Continental Hotels Group PLC, which owns the Kimpton brand, reported a decrease of 24.9% in revenue per available room in the first quarter of 2020.
Mr. Mallinger wrote that guests have been making bookings on a “very shortterm” basis, but there are fewer cancellations now than a few months ago.
“The positive trend in cancellations is more a result of fewer reservations on the books, though, than an overall higher appetite and willingness to travel,” he said.
Hotel staffers are regularly disinfecting “high-touch points” inside the facility, Mr. Mallinger wrote, and plexiglas screens have been installed at the check-in desks. Staffers wait 72 hours before entering vacated guest rooms for cleaning, an extension that reflects the hotel’s lowered occupancy levels.
“Normally at this time of year, we would be near full; however, we’re far closer to empty than full,” Mr. Mallinger wrote.