NYC Hotels Embrace Gimmicks to Goose Demand With Travel Frozen
Hotels are getting increasingly creative in their efforts to wring business out of the travel standstill.
The Hoxton hotel in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood will begin renting out entire floors for $2,020 a night when it reopens on July 20, for guests who want to "get the gang together." The boutique brand, which is extending similar deals at outposts in London, Paris and elsewhere, is also offering a small number of "honesty rooms," which allow guests to pay what they can afford.
A block away, the Wythe Hotel is partnering with office-sharing company Industrious to furnish private workspaces, complete with unlimited coffee, starting at $200 for a 10-hour day.
New York's hotel industry has been battered since the pandemic shut down the U.S. economy in March, keeping most travelers at home. And now, with coronavirus cases surging in other parts of the U.S., a nascent lodging recovery in states including Florida and Texas is coming unraveled.
Resorts that travelers can reach by car were a bright spot for the nation's lodging industry in recent weeks, as consumers who canceled vacations in the early months of the crisis flooded hotels in places like Panama City, Florida, and Biloxi, Mississippi.
