According to Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, capacity in the German health system is at risk of being overwhelmed as a result of the coronavirus crisis. "We have to assume that capacity will not be sufficient", Wieler told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. In the best-case scenario, hospitals will have expanded to maximum capacity by Easter and the measures in place will have the effect of flattening the curve."

"In the fight to contain coronavirus, federal and state governments decided in mid-March upon an emergency plan for hospitals in Germany, which anticipates that the "upgrading, equipping and conversion of rehabilitation facilities, hotels or large venues can help to create additional capacity for a multitude of non-critical cases".

Novum Group, Penta Hotels, Brera and b'mine already on board

PMS provider apaleo from Munich, Germany has recently made its cloud-based hotel software available free of charge for this purpose, allowing hotels to have a better view of availability and occupancy from a central system. As part of this initiative, apaleo has already added 188 hotels with 21,000 rooms in Germany and other countries (as of March 31, 2020), including almost all Novum Group properties, with some in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Austria, as well as Penta Hotels, Brera and b'mine Hotels.

"The aim of this campaign is that, by working with participating hotels, we free up hospital capacity for emergency cases so that quarantine cases at a non-critical stage, as well as support staff and nurses not living in the affected area, can be accommodated in the converted hotels" says Uli Pillau, co-founder of apaleo. "Patients from France are already being accommodated in German hospitals in the border areas. Capacity could soon be reached."

15,000 new rooms within 24 hours

"We are currently seeing many regional initiatives where hotel inventory is being committed to the emergency plan. With our highly scalable cloud platform for inventory management, we were able to add more than 15,000 new rooms to the system in the first 24 hours. We can help the hotel industry to pool efforts by providing the basic technology for this free of charge," added Martin Reichenbach, co-founder of apaleo.

In a matter of minutes, apaleo's cloud PMS can be set up and activated "remotely" for the converted hotel, i.e. via a web browser and without any apaleo employees visiting the property. If desired, other properties can be rapidly added later with one click. Local authorities and municipalities are also responding positively to the ability to use the cloud PMS to manage occupancy in venues and schools at no cost and have included apaleo on their crisis team list.

About Apaleo

Apaleo is the open property management platform for hotel and serviced apartment groups, empowering accommodation providers to create the ultimate digital experience for guests and staff. The API-first property management platform powers brands across more than 24 countries, disrupting the nature of hospitality software with the transition from single-vendor suites to best-of-breed technology. Customers include Numa, Limehome citizenM, Mollie's, Vagabond Club, Raus and more. For more information, visit apaleo.com.

Uli Pillau
+49 172 8212939