CORONAVIRUS
Hotel Owners Seek a New Way Forward
Parts of the U.S. hotel industry are in the very early stages of reopening amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-five states are reopening in phases as others remain closed or are partially reopening, reports the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In this story, Long Live Lodging reports on how owners plan to move forward and get back to business as most people are still not travel-minded despite getting green lights to move about while exercising safety precautions. Mitch Patel, CEO of Vision Hospitality Group, has hotels in Georgia and Tennessee, the first two states to announce reopening plans. He says the industry as a whole needs to come together and figure out how to do business in the COVID-19 reality. This article is part of an ongoing special report on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the U.S. hotel industry.
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Hotel construction eases up on completion timelines
Commercial construction starts dramatically plummeted in April because of the coronavirus crisis, reports Dodge Data & Analytics. In May, commercial starts saw a slight uptick. Hotels under construction when the pandemic hit continue to move forward but contractors are challenged with the unexpected costs of providing workers with personal protection equipment and complying with OSHA’s newly minted health and safety standards. Hotel developers, meantime, are not in a hurry to see projects across the finish line as demand in travel remains low. Long Live Lodging reports about the state of hotel construction as part of our ongoing special report on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hotel industry.
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274 | Construction in a Pandemic: Hotel builders face unexpected challenges
In the first quarter of this year, more than 140 new hotels opened in the U.S., reported Lodging Econometrics. In March, the U.S. had 150,000 rooms under construction, said STR. It’s the highest end-of-month total the company has reported. Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights at STR, said he expects hotel construction to read more