Crain’s New York Business: William Vale Hotel lays off workers amid industry’s ongoing struggle
By Eddie Small
January 11, 2021
Employees at Williamsburg’s trendy William Vale Hotel have been hit with a round of layoffs, yet another sign of how badly the city’s hospitality industry is struggling amid the pandemic.
Between Dec. 7 and Dec. 16, the company permanently let go of 77 employees–28 of whom had not been affected by the business’s temporarily closing in March, according to a notice filed with the state Department of Labor. The firm blamed “unforeseeable business circumstances prompted by Covid-19” for the layoffs.
The jobs affected at the William Vale were listed under “restaurant” on the state notice and are tied to NoHo Hospitality, the food and beverage partner at the hotel.
The city’s restaurants have been struggling throughout the pandemic, and owners have described the state’s move last month to reimpose a ban on indoor dining as the death knell for their industry.
The pandemic has hit the city’s hotel industry extremely hard as well. Only half of the hotel owners and general managers say the sector will recover from the impact of Covid-19, and roughly 200 local hotels had closed either permanently or temporarily as of late September, according to a recent report from the Hotel Association of New York City.
Representatives for the William Vale Hotel declined to comment.
The city’s unemployment rate for November was 12.1% and the rate for New York state was 8.4%, according Labor Department statistics. Although both figures were down compared to October, both are still much higher than they were before the pandemic.
This article was updated to reflect that representatives for the William Vale Hotel declined to comment, and that the hotel’s food and beverage partner is NoHo Hospitality.