A Dallas group of publicly traded hotel companies described as the Paycheck Protection Program’s biggest beneficiary says it’s keeping $126 million in coronavirus hardship loans to help put its thousands of employees back to work.

In a detailed, 26-point note posted to its website, Ashford Inc. said criticism is “misplaced” over hotel companies getting forgivable loans from the government effort to rescue small businesses ailing from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashford’s pushback comes as the program prepares to open the lending window Monday for a second time following an initial round that saw public companies claim millions in low-interest loans.

“The COVID-19 epidemic has been devastating to our company and employees,” according to Ashford’s post. “We have been in the hospitality business for decades and have never experienced anything as destructive to our industry. The impact is larger than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis combined.”

Ashford and two real estate investment trusts that it advises, Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, collectively applied for $126 million for 130 hotels and luxury resorts across the country that employed 14,000 people.

All three are headed by Dallas hotelier Monty J. Bennett. The companies had combined revenue of $2.2 billion last year. They sought PPP loans for each hotel location with 500 or fewer employees.

The companies earlier disclosed receiving $58.7 million in loans for hotels branded with some of the industry’s biggest names, such as Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Westin. In new regulatory filings Friday, the companies reported millions more in approved loans.

Small-business owners shut out in the program’s initial $349 billion lending round have been highly critical of public companies tapping into the money, arguing those firms had other ways to access capital to survive the crisis. Congress last week poured an additional $320 billion into the program, with lending scheduled to resume Monday.

Public companies such as AutoNation, Landry’s, Ruth’s Chris, and Shake Shack have since returned more than $170 million to the program, suggesting they weren’t aware their loans would prevent smaller businesses from getting help. The U.S. Small Business Administration issued new guidance requiring large companies to return the money by May 7 if they had alternate sources of funding.

Ashford said the loans it received are “crucial for the stabilization of our business, and they make up a significant portion of our (now much less valuable) companies.”

“We plan to keep all funds received under the PPP,” the company said. “Total PPP funding for the hotel industry accounts for less than 3% of the fund’s initial budget ... Our companies have not crowded out smaller businesses from receiving funds.”

Hotel companies weren’t able to seek assistance under the CARES Act’s separate Main Street Lending program because of the way hotels are financed in the U.S., according to the company. That meant it had to rely on PPP for help.

Ashford’s statement said the companies furloughed or laid off 90% of their workforce, closed 32 of 130 hotels, cut executive pay and operating expenses, and halted first quarter dividend payments to some shareholders in the trusts.

On Monday, the SBA begins taking loan applications again at 9:30 a.m. CT. It has encouraged lenders to process applications previously deemed eligible.

The initial program launch was rocky, after guidance for lenders to process loans wasn’t issued until the night before, and some large banks didn’t participate initially or only took applications from customers with existing loan accounts. The SBA’s processing system was inaccessible at times because of the volume of applications.

There are questions about how smoothly the program will relaunch because some banks continued to take applications after the SBA stopped accepting them, and large banks are ready to flood the SBA with those applications and others that weren’t processed in the first round.

One Dallas business owner shut out in the first round said she’s going to try working with a smaller bank.

Susan Saffron, whose jewelry business has operated on Lovers Lane for 10 years, applied in the first round through JPMorgan Chase, one of the program’s largest lenders. She said the manager at her branch changes often and she’s found it difficult to establish a relationship.

“I’m just one of a million people at Chase,” said Saffron, whose sales have dropped 80% since she closed her door March 16. “I will be moving to a smaller bank. I’ve been loyal and been doing business with them a long time.”

Saffron said she was angry when larger companies got big loans quickly. After talking with other small-business owners, she realized people like her were successful with smaller banks.

Lucky Dog Barkery at The Plaza at Preston Center in Dallas. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

At the Plaza at Preston Center, pet store owner Marsha Lindsey applied for a $34,000 loan from Bank of America to keep her employees working at Lucky Dog Barkery. She got an email Thursday informing her that her application was complete, but waiting on funds.

She’s paid her April rent and her vendors, who are also small businesses.

“I haven’t run out of money, but you got to wonder what are the priorities here," Lindsey said. "It’s not like mine was a $10 million loan.”

Other small-business owners have gone to court. In a lawsuit filed last week in Dallas County, two businesses accused banking giant JPMorgan Chase of ignoring them in order to help larger clients.

Starwalk of Dallas LLC, a party supply rental company, and Kona-Wood Houston LLC, a snow cone business, allege in the class-action lawsuit that Chase assured small-business owners it would help them but instead focused on “select customers and bigger businesses.”

Starwalk and Kona-Wood applied for PPP funding online through Chase’s website. The businesses said Chase never notified them about whether their applications were approved.

“Chase Bank selected among its bigger ‘small businesses’ to prioritize and process their loans to the detriment of its other small business customers,” the lawsuit said.

Chase had not filed a response to the lawsuit as of Friday afternoon. Chase has said it funded $14 billion in loans in the program’s initial round, with a backlog totaling $26 billion before money ran out.

Bloomberg also contributed to this story.