April 2020 was not for the faint of heart. The month will live in infamy for the global hotel industry, which saw the bulk of its key performance indicators swoon to unprecedented levels, an unfortunate by-product of the COVID-19 vapor.

Just over a year after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the global hotel industry is—slowly—stirring from hibernation and seeing at least modest gains in traveler demand. The wait has been long, and it remains a work in progress.

The U.S. hotel industry was in need of a month like February. For Europe, it was another in a string of profitability pain.

In one of many entertaining scenes from the 1981 war comedy "Stripes," peak Bill Murray cajoles peak John Candy to mud wrestle a trio of scantily clad women in a bar. You can imagine what ensues, and if you can't, the internet does.

Does a pandemic qualify for business interruption insurance? It's a question hoteliers shouldn't be asking themselves, but rather, their insurance company.