The downtown Hilton Knoxville hotel, which has seen a massive decrease in occupancy amid coronavirus concerns, has temporarily laid off a majority of its employees across a variety of job types.

Essentially, it's only managers left running the 320-room hotel. Hotel general manager Paul Jordan said he was able to keep a few hourly employees.

But, without guests in the hotel, there's no one for staff to take care of. The hotel broke the news to most employees Friday.

"We can sit here and kick the can around for another week while we're trying to have the inevitable conversation with the employees but, right now, we're not going to have the hours," Jordan said. "As it begins to ramp up, we can bring them back."

The hotel is still accepting reservations.

A decrease no one anticipated

Jordan is hoping business picks back up in about six weeks. Between Wednesday and Saturday, he said, occupancy fluctuated from 100% to 8% and back up to 24% as of Friday night.

"We knew we had some issues with the market but, obviously, I don't think anybody anticipated it going quite that fast," he said.

The hotel currently is operating with roughly 20% of its employees. Jordan realizes some employees might not return, but he believes it's worth the risk for them.

He wants employees to be able to access unemployment benefits as soon as possible. Jordan said everyone will have access to their medical benefits during the temporary layoff, and paid time off will be available upon their return.

'This is all they know'

Chuck Duble, a kitchen worker, said he was among those laid off. He already has secured a new job, but not everyone was so fortunate.

"People were caught off guard and people are still processing it," Duble said. "A lot of these people there are people that have been there 20 years, and this is all they know."

He said workers obviously are upset but seem to understand where the hotel is coming from and that circumstances are out of their control.

The lack of PTO seems to be "what grinds people's gears the most," Duble said.

A 'resilient market'

Jordan feels other hotels in the market are experiencing similar circumstances. He did not share the number of employees that were laid off.

"For all intents and purposes, pretty much everything we had in the books for the foreseeable future was canceled," Jordan said.

That's not going to change any time soon, he said, and it is "painful" to see his employees without work.

Fortunately, a good number of the large groups that had to cancel reservations have been re-booked for later in the year.

"I think we have a resilient market," Jordan said.