This Makes Us Proud to be in the Hospitality Industry

Florida, Texas and the Caribbean has had its share of hurricane trauma this season, but it is comforting to know that hotels have stepped up in a major way to offer assistance.

Danielle Hess of Hotel News Now reports that “many hotels in Texas and Florida operated as shelters for their communities during Hurricane Harvey and Irma.”

Let’s look at some of the standout efforts hoteliers took.

“One hotel, Concord’s Courtyard by Marriott Houston Intercontinental Airport in Houston, wasn’t officially open yet when Hurricane Harvey hit, but the property received permission to open before its grand opening to house first responders, Homeland Security workers and hotel employees who had lost their homes to the storm.”

“Some of Concord’s Houston hotels that were fully booked opened up meeting rooms to set up cots for people who needed a place to stay.”

At the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Naples, located in one of the hardest hit areas on the Gulf Coast, it “put up its entire staff and their extended families at the hotel so they could be together and safe as Irma passed through the city.”

It wasn’t just in the hurricane-affected areas where hotels stepped up. “The Ramada Plaza Cincinnati Sharonville (Ohio) offered 30 rooms for free 10-day stays to families from Texas and Florida who left their homes to escape the hurricane.”

“Accor Hotels has set up an Irma Humanitarian and Reconstruction fund through Solidarity Accor Hotels. Wyndham Rewards members can help out by donating points to Save the Children.”

It does indeed take a village.