291 | On The Brink: Hotel associations lobby on Capitol Hill to ward off disaster




Lodging Leaders show

Summary: <br> {caption}CLOSED FOR GOOD: Highgate Hospitality on Oct. 1 closed its Hilton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Average occupancy in New York City hotels was below 40 percent, compared to more than 90 percent a year ago, reports STR. The 478-room full-service Hilton Times Square opened in 2000. The closure put 200 people out of work. The shuttering of the landmark property is the tip of the iceberg, say industry officials who forecast a wave of hotel closures unless the federal government provides direct relief to an industry suffering steep losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo: Hilton){/caption}<br> The end is near for much of the U.S. lodging sector unless Feds soon provide fiscal relief, say industry advocates<br> ime is running out for the nation’s 57,000 hotels in need of federal government financial relief as the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. heads into its eighth month, say leaders at AAHOA and the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association.<br> The U.S. hotel industry is hanging on by a thread as foreclosures on hotels are happening every day, say <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecil-staton-b659a443/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cecil Staton</a>, president and CEO of <a href="https://www.aahoa.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AAHOA</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-chip-rogers-8068764/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chip Rogers</a>, president and CEO of <a href="https://www.ahla.com/">AHLA</a>.<br> But they’re not the only ones sounding the alarm.<br> An Oct. 15 letter addressed to President Donald Trump asking him to approve “immediate modifications” to the federal government’s $600 billion Main Street Lending Program is signed by Staton and Rogers and 78 other industry leaders, including CEOs of major hotel franchisers.<br> According to research from the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association, two thirds of the nation’s 57,000 hotels will close without federal government relief.<br> Experts Lodging Leaders interviewed say hotel businesses are on the precipice of failure, and if they fall they’re taking more than 5 million jobs with them.<br> Congress and the U.S. Department of Treasury this week are hashing out another round of stimulus spending. Congress is expected to vote on some form of relief this week.<br> Meantime, government affairs advocates at AHLA and AAHOA are on Capitol Hill every day lobbying Congress to enact legislation that will save the hotel industry from the death throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.<br> LISTEN: <a href="https://longlivelodging.com/291-on-the-brink-hotel-associations-lobby-on-capitol-hill-to-ward-off-disaster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ON THE BRINK OF DISASTER: Episode 291 of Lodging Leaders podcast</a> examines efforts by AAHOA and AHLA on Capitol Hill to ward off a wave of hotel business foreclosures that could cut the number of the nation’s 57,000 hotels in half.<br> One of the major goals is the expansion of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program into a second round of funding.<br> They’re also asking the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Federal Reserve to redo the Main Street Lending Program to enable small businesses to borrow money to pay their mortgages and ward off foreclosure.<br> Industry leaders such as Staton and Rogers are fighting to be heard above the noise emanating from The Hill this election season.<br> Staton works to cut through the political din with the collective voice of hotel owners – small business investors and operators whose needs are often overlooked when big government moves to bail out big business.<br> “We have been at the ready for now months, talking to members of the House, Senators, members of the administration on literally a daily basis about trying to get more relief that would be specific to hoteliers,” Staton said.<br> “We’re really at a precipice,” he said,