Hotels hanging on — and helping out

Local hotels have opened their doors to provide shelter for essential workers during Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home order, which has been extended to April 30.

Fifty-nine hotel properties in Idaho have volunteered to be a part of an American Hotel and Lodging Association initiative to lend a helping hand through hospitality during the pandemic.

In Coeur d’Alene, the Holiday Inn Express, La Quinta Coeur d’Alene, Hampton Inn Coeur d’Alene, Comfort Inn and Suites, and Staybridge Suites Coeur d’Alene have volunteered.

In Post Falls, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn near the Washington state line, and the Red Lion Hotel Templin’s on the River have remained open to provide rooms as needed for essential workers and travelers, according to Pam Eaton of the Idaho Lodging and Restaurant Association.

While properties have agreed to contract help to the state, government agencies haven’t called for help. At least not yet. The Idaho Department of Correction received the Idaho Lodging and Restaurant Association’s list, but has not had discussions with any specific hotels, according to IDOC public information officer Jeff Ray.

Ray wasn’t able to speculate on why the list was requested or when it may be put into use.

John Helwich, general manager at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Coeur d’Alene, said the hotel’s configuration provides a unique opportunity to offer space for people who need to be isolated. The hotel has two separate wings, enabling staff to offer multiple avenues of essential service. The hotel has daily and weekly workspace accommodations for people unable to work from home. Helwich also volunteered the hotel to the “Hospitality for Hope” initiative and through local organizations like St. Vincent de Paul.

“At this point it's all preparation, being prepared for anything that might occur,” Helwich said. “The cities are looking at homeless, displaced individuals. They’ll need to provide them with temporary shelter.”

While the Comfort Inn and Suites occupancies are down 50-70% from this month last year, the hotel is still providing accommodations for essential workers, including Winco truck drivers delivering groceries from Boise or Washington state.

“We also partner with Kootenai Health, providing rooms for individuals coming in for surgeries from distant places,” Helwich said.

The hotel is equipped with kitchenettes and walk-in showers for post-surgery patients. Prior to the pandemic, the majority of their guests were related to commercial or medical services.

In December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 16.78 million people worked in the hospitality industry nationwide. The American Hotel and Lodging Association reports that 17% of the world’s population stayed in American hotels last year. Almost overnight, an industry that contributed $660 billion to the U.S. GDP came to a halt.

Brain Tree Hospitality President Chuck Everett said his hotels have had to lay off roughly half of their employees across the Intermountain West and Pacific Northwest. Brain Tree Hospitality manages La Quinta in Coeur d’Alene and the Hampton Inn in Riverstone. Both properties are in the American Hotel and Lodging Association database if the properties are needed to contract with government agencies or hospitals during the pandemic.

Everett, however, has concerns about the details of any agreements — specifically, who would carry the responsibility to decontaminate the property after the pandemic.

“The whole thing scares me,” Everett told The Press. “[Signing up] was a reaction to the hotels that have an incredibly low occupancy rate. We need much more information before we would ever enter into an agreement.”

Some hotels within the Brain Tree Hospitality network are down to renting just five or six rooms a night. Everett said it’s entirely appropriate that hotels would look for alternative ways to raise income. Joining the “Hospitality for Hope” initiative seemed like one of the only options to keep his hotels above water, as people across the country cancel room reservations for both work and play.