As travel slows to a trickle both in the U.S. and internationally, hotels are searching for the best ways to fill hundreds of thousands of empty guest rooms. Some are working with their local city officials to house first responders and even vulnerable locals whose circumstances don’t allow them to self-isolate, while others are crafting more traditional packages to attract paying guests who want – or need – to quarantine themselves.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) this week introduced a nationwide program called Hotels for Hope designed to help its member properties work with government at all levels to meet special needs during the coronavirus crisis. This would not only help solve the accommodation needs of government agencies but would also give hotels a much-needed source of revenue so they can remain open.

AH&LA said it has already found thousands of properties around the country that are ready to work with government agencies “to provide access to hotel properties to support the health community and our nation’s first responders who may be in need of temporary housing during this crucial time.”



The Association is creating a national database of cooperating hotels that government officials at all levels — from the federal Department of Health and Human Services to local agencies — can search to find local lodging possibilities for health workers and residents in need.

According to a tweet by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the tony Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan is going to house medical personnel for free:

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week, city officials are working with dozens of local hotels to secure thousands of “isolation rooms” for those who are under quarantine, “Those are mostly targeted at residents of SRO hotels who cannot hole up in their own rooms because they share communal bathrooms and kitchens,” the newspaper reported.

Some rooms could be set aside for health care workers and other first responders who need a place to stay between shifts. Hotels that have submitted bids include upscale icons such as The Palace Hotel on Market Street and the InterContinental Mark Hopkins on Nob Hill, although it's not clear when or if these hotels would start welcoming these new guests.



Efforts like that are under way in other Bay Area locations – e.g., almost 400 rooms have been set aside in two Oakland hotels to house homeless residents — and a similar plan is reportedly in the works in Santa Clara County.

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The City of Chicago this week said it will rent up to 3,000 local hotel rooms to house mildly ill coronavirus patients as well as those who think they were exposed and others who are waiting for test results. The Chicago mayor’s office said the city will pay around $175 a night for the rooms, including three meals a day, and occupants will be directed there by the Chicago Department of Public Health, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A similar program is said to be in the works in hard-hit New York City, including plans by the Army Corps of Engineers to convert up to 10,000 rooms in hotels and college dorms into temporary hospital rooms as the number of coronavirus cases in the city continues to skyrocket.

Some individual hotels are crafting their own commercial packages to attract guests during the crisis. For example, the Argonaut at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, is promoting a special Bay Area resident rate via social media. It’s $87 a night for stays of seven days or more, available through May 22 for residents who are “struggling to create social distance in a crowded home or apartment, or if you just want to escape from your roommates,” according to Stefan Muhle, the hotel company’s area managing director. He adds: "We’ve already had a handful locals take advantage of our outreach to offer a safe, clean, comfortable, and affordable place for those who live in crowded living conditions, to stay and lessen the likelihood of interfamily/inter-household transmission."

Perhaps the ultimate quarantine product comes from Switzerland’s Le Bijou Hotel & Resort Management, which operates properties in Geneva, Zurich and other Swiss cities, with rates starting around $800 a night. Its accommodations are actually serviced apartments, and now they are offering crisis-inspired add-on services like a coronavirus test for $500 and a twice-daily nurse visit from a private health clinic for $1,800, as well as meal deliveries and personal chef services. Housekeeping staff don’t come in to clean the room until the guest checks out.

The lodging data firm STR said that during the week of March 15-21, when the decline in travel was really kicking in, nationwide U.S. hotel occupancy (percentage of rooms occupied) declined 56.4 percent year-over-year, to 30.3 percent, and revenue per available room dropped 69.5 percent to $28.32. Hotels in the San Francisco/San Mateo region, STR said, posted the nation’s biggest declines, with occupancy down 80.7 percent to 16.6 percent and revenue per available room falling 89.3 percent to $25.08.

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Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates!

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