Hospitality Net introduced a live timeline with relevant and industry-specific coronavirus news, resources and external updates. We asked our contributors to share their professional opinion with you.

With governments, communities and businesses taking action to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and support the welfare of their people, staff and customers, the hospitality industry is playing their part.

The travel and tourism industry faces an unprecedented existential crisis. Despite this, hotels and restaurants across the world continue to look for ways that their facilities and staff can support their local communities.

The hospitality industry has been innovative in their response:

  • ITP members Hilton, IHG, Marriott and NH Hotel Group are among the many hotel companies and hotel associations working with local governments across the world to transform vacant hotel rooms into treatment facilities to support increasing demand on local healthcare systems. Other hotel companies include Best Western Great Britain, Melia, Travelodge and Whitbread.
  • Hilton is engaging with their wider business networks to support the staff of their closed properties into temporary jobs in much needed services, including Amazon, Walgreens, Lidl and CVS Pharmacy.
  • Extra capacity for homeless shelters is beginning to be created by hotels. For example, IHG in London is providing temporary accommodation for the next three months for rough sleepers and a Hilton hotel in New Orleans is providing food and accommodation for the next month. This measure is being explored by other governments with many hotel companies across different locations, including California, Paris and Dublin.
  • Healthcare professionals working on the frontline are being offered free food and accommodation from large hotel brands including Four Seasons, OYO Hotels and Homes and Taj (IHCL), to independent hotels such as Chicago's Sophy Hyde Park Hotel and the Linton Lodge Hotel in Oxford, UK.

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