Pix11 NY: NYC hotel industry one of many reeling from pandemic, asking for help
By Narmeen Choudhury
September 22, 2020
This time last year New York City had the foot traffic — and restaurant and hotel traffic — from the United Nations General Assembly.
Not this year. The annual summit is mostly virtual this year.
The loss for the hotel industry alone is about $20 million. The industry says it’s bleeding and in need of a lifeline.
The New York on PAUSE plan back in March impacted the state deeply.
In New York City, the virtual ghost town was eerie and made some worry it could never bounce back. Little by little, however bits of the old life are returning — but members of the hotel industry said Tuesday they are being largely ignored.
Vijay Dandapani, President and CEO of the NYC Hotel Association, said revenues fell by 85% once lockdown policies went into place. And while they received some business from the the city and state, including 13,000 rooms being occupied thanks the Department of Homeless services and other rooms occupied by front-line workers at the height of the pandemic, it was still not nearly enough.
“Right now the combined total of full revenues for all the hotels in New York City, including what we get from the government, is about $5.4 million a day. Normally that would have been about $28 million a day,” said Dandapani.
There are an estimated 700 hotels across the city, with about 129,000 rooms available.
Tuesday, according to the Hotel Association of New York City, about 200 are closed either temporarily or permanently, and that number they believe will only climb.
Occupancy, for those open, only stands at 7% to 8% total. The loss is devastatingly significant, particularly for the estimated 55,000 hotel industry employees.
John Fitzpatrick owns two hotels in Midtown Manhattan and only one is open and operating, with only 25 rooms being used, mostly by airline employees. The majority of his 160 employees are furloughed.
He said he doesn’t want to think of what will happen to those employees, some who have worked for him for more than 30 years, if he doesn’t get help soon.
Dandapani believes some policy changes could help keep the remaining hotels going. For example, lifting the 14 day quarantine for those visiting from certain states.
Dandapani suggests requiring a RT-PCR test of visitors, similar to what is being done in the European Union. The rapid COVID-19 test clears them from quarantine and allows for NYC to open to tourists.
“Obviously, this is up to the health department, but it’s being done elsewhere. I’m not making this up. I’m not an epidemiologist I’m not a infectious disease expert. I’m just watching what my counterparts are doing elsewhere and it’s working really well,” he said.
With high labor costs, operating costs and property taxes, Dandapani is also pleading to the city to make some concessions as well. He’s asking the city for a better interest rate for defaulting on property taxes. It’s 18% right now.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Press Secretary, Caitlin Girouard, issued this statement:
“Of course we understand the difficulties facing the tourism industry while travel worldwide has essentially come to a halt, but we have to remember that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic and – with new cases increasing more than 15 percent in the last 10 days – everyone is trying to avoid a potential second wave that would send infections spiking and force businesses to close down again.”