Thousands of U.S. hotels join AHLA to support healthcare industry

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) recently launched a new initiative – “Hospitality for Hope” with 15,000 hotels signing up to be a part of the program. Under the initiative selected hotel properties have offered to provide temporary accommodation and housing facilities for emergency and healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. An approximate of 2.3 million rooms located in close proximity to established health care facilities would be used in the initiative.

Certain hotels can also be potentially used as alternative care sites such as an emergency hospital or quarantine zones besides providing housing for the health care community. AHLA’s initiative has been created with the aim of boosting collaboration between the hotel industry and local, state and federal governments. It would be used to help the healthcare industry, its employees and the community across the country during the major ongoing health crisis.

Chip Rogers, President, and CEO, AHLA said, in a press statement that it has been impressive to witness numerous hotels join the important initiative. He mentioned that the hotel industry is uniquely positioned as an industry that takes care of people. He said the industry can provide support to communities by caring for individuals who are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis from the frontline. He shared that the company is proud to work to partner with federal, state and local governments to support the health community during an unprecedented critical situation.

Last week, the American Hotel & Lodging Foundation’s charitable arm expanded the initiative by giving out free resources to help industry employees continue their education during this difficult time. Free hospitality management online courses, professional development scholarships for AHLA certifications and other online education programs are also being provided.

Various hotels and the hospitality industry as a whole are coming together to provide help and support to the community and their furloughed employees in a time of grave public health and economic crisis.

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