Hotels across the USA and the world are struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many have temporarily shuttered, and more are on the way. Some may never reopen.

"I don’t think the (hospitality) industry itself has yet come to terms with the full scope of every piece of minutiae that needs to be reimagined," Steve Carvell, professor of finance in Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business, told USA TODAY.

Still, the industry is accommodating guests, aiding essential workers and homeless people in communities and adjusting offerings where it can as the travel industry spirals and fights for government aid to overcome the crisis.

Hotels house health care workers, serve as quarantine spaces

More than 15,000 hotels signed up for a new American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) initiative called "Hospitality for Hope," which matches hotels with government agencies in need, offering temporary housing for emergency and health care workers amid the pandemic.

Arizona, too:More than 300 Arizona hotels have signed up to house health care workers battling coronavirus

Decisions for which hotels are used to house health care workers are made primarily at the local level and related to proximity to hospitals, according to Carvell.

Hotels may be in a position to offer rooms near a hospital they have a relationship with, for when relatives of sick patients come to the area. In these scenarios, hotels reach out to hospital leadership to offer a discounted rate.

Cameron Lamming, chief development officer of Hostmark Hospitality Group, said the group's San Diego hotels offer low rates near hospitals – not nearly enough to make up the money lost.

"This could absolutely mitigate some of the declines that we are seeing, but you are seeing rock-bottom rates for all hotels," Lamming told USA TODAY.

Hotel occupancy in the USA the week of April 5 to 11 was down nearly 70% year-over-year, at 21%, according to STR data. "Several weeks of data also point to occupancy in the 20% range to be the low point, and economy hotels holding at a higher occupancy level is the pattern right now," Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights, said in a statement.

Some counties purchased or leased hotels to house people who need to be quarantined but don’t need intensive medical care, said Teryn Zmuda, deputy chief innovation officer for the National Association of Counties.

For example: Hotels in the resort town of Ocean City, Maryland, offer rooms for patients in what Sherry Jenkins, regional director of sales and marketing at the Pinnacle Hospitality Group, calls a "win-win'' for hotels and health care workers.

Carvell said using hotels as quarantine spaces is a sticky issue. There could be questions about whether staffers have the proper personal protective equipment like hospital workers.

Plus, once the crisis ends, "does it want to be known as a hotel that housed quarantine individuals?" Carvell said. Proper sanitation procedures would come into play.

Lamming said he initially thought there would be stigma, but "with so many premier hotels going this route (of becoming quarantine spaces), we do not believe it will impact these hotels going forward."

Hotel chains donate rooms, offer discounted rates to essential workers

Hilton and American Express donated 1 million hotel rooms for medical professionals responding to the coronavirus pandemic. The rooms will be available to doctors, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians and other workers through the end of May, according to Hilton.

Several Hilton hotels worked with state and local authorities to house others, including law enforcement and people returning from abroad who may need to self-quarantine, Hilton spokesperson Meg Ryan told USA TODAY. Hilton Orlando hosted the National Guard for more than a month.

For rooms not donated, rates vary: "While rates vary by group and location, we are working closely with organizations who are supporting the COVID-19 response to offer rates that will provide meaningful support to their members," Ryan said.

Hyatt hotels offer discounted rates for health care and other essential workers at the Hyatt Place Bakersfield, Hyatt Place Columbus/OSU and Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, Mark Vondrasek, the chief commercial officer at Hyatt, told USA TODAY.

Marriott donated $10 million in hotel stays for doctors and nurses. The company's efforts are focused on areas of the country most affected by coronavirus, including New York and Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans; Detroit; Los Angeles; Las Vegas and Washington.

Such "free" programs are in high demand. A Hawaii program providing free hotel rooms to health workers responding to the coronavirus was modified after the demand exceeded the number of available rooms.

The backdrop of all this is the financial reality: About 25% of Marriott's 7,300 hotels around the world are temporarily closed.

Under the $2 trillion relief package signed by President Donald Trump last month, hotels and other travel providers will have to compete for loans from a $500 billion fund.

There's a mismatch when it comes to hotels' needs, Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president for the U.S. Travel Association, told USA TODAY. Much of the money available to them is to pay staff salaries, but 60% of a hotel's expenses are fixed costs, so they want the program modified to give them more latitude in how they use the federal money.

The association wants Congress to pass a $250 billion small-business loan measure, as well.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association sent a letter to Congress urging it to update the coronavirus relief law on top of the funding increase. The organization also wrote to the Federal Reserve and Treasury, hoping to stop the foreclosure of thousands of hotel properties.

Half of the hotels in the USA could shutter, Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the AHLA, told USA TODAY last month.

Hotels house the homeless

As part of the "Hospitality for Hope" initiative, the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs, New York, serves as a temporary homeless shelter. About 200 homeless people were taken from New Orleans streets to a Hilton Garden Inn and Quality Inn.

This is happening all over the country.

More than 100 older and medically vulnerable homeless people were provided hotel rooms to protect them from COVID-19 within Salem, Oregon's, unsheltered population.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched an effort to house 15,000 homeless people.

People use hotels as workspaces

Some hotels serve as day workspaces, aka flex rooms. Before the coronavirus, it wasn't uncommon for people to book hotel rooms for small group meetings. "A hotel room with free WiFi might be worth it if you had a full day of Zoom/web meetings planned," Carvell said. "We all know what it’s like when children and a significant other are using WiFi bandwidth while an important business meeting is going on."

Hostmark's Lafayette Hotel, Swim Club and Bungalows gives guests private workspaces in its poolside rooms for a day rate.

Hotels advertise quarantine packages to guests.

Le Bijou Hotel and Resort in Switzerland, made up of repurposed luxury apartments, advertises them as "quarantine apartments" on its COVID-19 service page.

A 14-day stay in one of these apartments costs $12,000 to $14,000 per day, Alexander Hübner, CEO and co-founder of Le Bijou, told USA TODAY.

If you stay at a hotel: David Sherwyn, a hospitality professor at Cornell University, said hotel companies do everything they can to make their environments safe as possible. Some have even hired infectious disease consultants to advise them.

Contributing: Curtis Tate, Chris Woodyard, Jayme Deerwester and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY; Connor Radnovich, Salem Statesman Journal; The Associated Press

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