Hotel Impact

Hotels are seeing a big impact from the shelter in place orders.

Our Quentin Smith speaks with two local hotels experiencing fewer bookings.

Mississippi - like alabama - has taken a big hit in the accommodations business - hotels are seeing a big impact.

Shelter in place orders naturally mean fewer people travelling.

And hotels depend on those travelers to keep their doors open.

Our quentin smith speaks with two local hotels experiencing fewer bookings.

He joins us live with more.

Aundrea, i'm here at the days inn hotel in columbus.

They're used to seeing rooms filled with guests ...but empty rooms like this one are now the common thing... slow business is impacting hotels throughout the area, causing some workers to be laid off and empty lobby....empty bedrooms...and not much going on at the front desk... this has become the new normal for staff at days inn.

" honestly speaking business has been really dull.

We usually have the occupancy of about 60 or 70% during this time of year, but because of the covid-19 we have about 30% of the occupancy."

Netri patel works at the front desk and says this weekend was going to be a big moneymaker because of people coming into town for graduation.

" we were booked for the weekend and we had some people call in just to have their names down so if the rooms get canceled they can have their rooms, but because of the coronavirus the ceremony got canceled and they all just canceled their reservation."

But this hotel isn't alone, the holiday inn is also feeling the impacts of covid-19.

" it hurt us a lot, we had to lay employees off, things we normally would do we couldn't do anymore like the breakfast and things like that."

But just because business is slow, staff members are still working hard to keep themselves and their guests safe.

Workers are wearing ppe, constantly wiping, and cleaning the rooms and building.

" the buttons for the elevator, we would normally wipe down once or twice a day, but now we are having to wipe it down every hour or so.

Anywhere the guest or staff is going to have contact, we're wiping down multiple times a day."

At days inn, patel says he's taking those same preventative measures.

In fact, employees members are encouraged not to leave the hotel just so they won't put anyone at risk " we have a couple of workers who have been staying here for over a month.

It's good for us to keep them safe because if they go out and bring it in it's going to be harmful for us and the guest at the same time."

Both hotels say this is their busy time of year with graduation, college athletics, and several local events that were set to take place in the coming weeks.

The hotels will remain open and practice safety measures.

But in the meantime.... workers say things will likely remain this way until the economy re-opens.

Reporting live in columbus.

Quentin smith.

Wcbi news.

Take vo