Some states are beginning to lift stay-at-home orders and start the process of reopening their economies. As such, conversations in the hospitality industry are starting to turn toward recovery. To help hotel owners in what likely will be a slow and complicated process filled with new regulations and protocols, AAHOA has launched a new recovery-focused webpage containing the latest news, resources, and tools for AAHOA Members, including a curated list of our webcasts focused on this topic. Check back often as the page will be updated with new content on a daily basis.

AAHOA is proud to represent America's hotel owners on the advisory council that developed Safe Stay, a brand-new industry initiative focused on hotel cleaning standards. The Safe Stay initiative, led by AHLA in partnership with AAHOA and other members of the advisory council, is an industry-wide enhanced standard of health and safety protocols designed to prepare America’s hotels to safely welcome back guests and employees. These guidelines will provide a framework for consistency and confidence for all guests and employees as hotels, both brands and independents, prepare to welcome their return as the economy begins to reopen. The Safe Stay guidelines are intended to evolve and will be revised as needed, based on the recommendations of public health authorities in compliance with any federal, state, and local laws.

We need your help. In order to most effectively advocate on behalf of members, AAHOA is collecting information regarding your experiences with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and CMBS loans, as well as recommendations from independent hoteliers. Your answers on the PPP survey will help AAHOA push for changes to the program and its implementation that will most benefit our members. Your responses on the CMBS survey as to how you are handling your loan, including requests, communication, and forbearance, will bolster our outreach efforts to government officials and agency employees. Your perspective on the IH survey will guide AAHOA in determining what resources we can provide that would be most helpful to independent hoteliers. All information submitted on the questionnaires is strictly confidential.

Head over to Facebook regularly to see our members exemplifying what it means to be #AAHOASTRONG! Lifetime Member Nikunj (Nikki) Shah began a new COVID-19 Mask Donation initiative with the help of his clients, friends, and family members. “Every single day the numbers are getting worse, the shortages are getting worse, and I just know what these medical people are going through on the front lines without equipment,” Nikki said. For him it was personal. He knew many people, including his sister, who were working with little to no personal protective equipment (PPE). In 14 days, the initiative raised $91,865 and donated more than 101,000 masks to more than 204 organizations. ... Lifetime Member Babu "Jerry" Patel and the Indian community in Mississippi joined together to raise more than $22,500 for the Mississippi Food Network as part of their COVID-19 Relief Effort fundraiser in April. “We try to help as much as we can. Everything counts," Patel said. "We are in a time of need so we come together as Indians in Mississippi. To show our support, we give back to our state that has helped many of those in our community come a long from where we started.” Jerry “Babu” Patel, Baljeet Sharma, Phoolan Gosain, and Dr. Deepika Majithia spearheaded the COVID-19 Relief Effort fundraiser. ... Thank you to Nikki, Jerry, and the countless others who contributed for embodying what it means to be #AAHOASTRONG.

In the coming weeks, AAHOA is hosting a number of virtual events targeted at regions around the country. The virtual event series is designed to help hotel owners remain connected with AAHOA Officers, board members, staff, and each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Make plans to join us for this and other upcoming virtual events. You also can visit the virtual events archive to view past recordings in their entirety.

In the wake of the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry, AAHOA is bringing you a series of webcasts that will keep you informed and help determine next steps for your business. We have educated more than 10,000 hoteliers to date and feature more than 75 webcasts separated by category in our library. AAHOA is making these webcasts available to the industry, so be sure to share with those in your network, whether they're an AAHOA Member or not. 

 

Upcoming Webcasts:

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey reports, “Economy (-38.0%) was the relatively strongest chain scale for branded hotels; Luxury was the weakest at -92.0%. Upscale (-80.3%) underperformed the industry average; Upper Midscale (-74.2%) outperformed. RevPAR trends once again moved in a slightly "less worse" direction, even despite what we argue was a difficult y/y comp (2019 recovery demand post-Easter). However, as we noted last week, we assume some of the strength may be driven by closed hotels and the remaining open properties receiving higher absolute demand. Regardless, we would not describe absolute occupancy of 28.6% to be a significant improvement vs. the running 28-day occupancy of 25.2%.”

 

AAHOA Members get discounts on employer-sponsored medical, dental, vision, disability, and other benefit plans. We also offer a FREE Pharmacy Discount Card program that offers savings of up to 75 percent on all FDA-approved prescriptions. For more info, contact Susana Cintron today!

Travel Media Group is a hospitality marketing partner that provides solutions that give AAHOA Members a competitive edge through marketing and business insights. Services include social media, review responses, reputation management, responsive websites, online and print advertising, and more. Travel Media Group offers smarter hotel marketing to help hotels increase revenue. Visit the website, then contact Dana Singer and ask about our all-in-one guest-engagement platform built for hotels!

Better Buildings provides hotel owners with free technology solutions, market expertise, and a network of peers to identify cost-saving efficiency measures. Contact Holly Carr for more information on the Department of Energy's drive to make the nation’s homes, commercial buildings, and industrial plants more energy efficient.

COVID-19 may have been unprecedented, but there are practices to help hoteliers get through this pandemic. Hotels that are normally open year round can adopt seasonal practices and openings. Going forward, a hotel team's digital communication practices are going to be key to getting back in business.

States are beginning to reopen and a surge of people itching to travel is expected. But the hotel industry isn't going "back" to normal. Instead, it is expecting a new normal. New operations look like masks, gloves, and hospital-grade sanitization practices. 

The hotel industry has always focused on face-to-face service, but the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact with other. One way tech can assist hoteliers is through robotic technology. While technology cannot completely replace human interaction, it can definitely help when social distancing is needed for safety measures.