Decatur Mayor, Julie Moore Wolfe, said that Decatur has secured one hotel for first responders. The Decatur Conference Center and Hotel owner Steve Horve stepped up to offer the option. “We’ve been looking at properties for weeks. . because we’re basically, in a lot of respects for some of these, we’re asking them to put any kind of other option on hold. I feel pretty confident that we’ve got enough.”
April 13, 2020 – Hundreds of Illinois hotels with millions of empty rooms are offering their services to first responders who want to avoid bringing the virus home to family and loved ones.
Nationally, the American Hotel and Lodging Association reported more than 15,000 hotels have offered rooms to first responders to lower the risk of bringing the virus into their homes.
The practice has been planned in Chicago area and elsewhere in Illinois for some time, Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association Director Michael Jacobson said. Now the effort is moving downstate.
Moore Wolfe says EMA was asked to secure 25 rooms for first responders. The use of the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel meets that need. They Mayor added that the hotel will not serve as a makeshift hotel. It will only serve as emergency housing for first responders should they need it.
The hotels are still being paid for the rooms, but they’re not profiting, rather charging municipalities, hospitals or the responder’s professional association just enough to keep a few staffers working.
“In some cases, the local governments are picking up the cost,” Jacobson said. “Ultimately, no hotel is profiting off of a program like this.”
The offering comes as hotels across the state are seeing occupancy nearly vanish in a matter of days over widespread stay-at-home orders that have kept more than three-quarters of the nation’s population home. In March, Jacobson said the industry lost billions of dollars in a matter of weeks.
