A Model for Hotels to Hospitals (H2H ©) During an Unprecedented Era

During the early months of 2020, once it was apparent that the novel coronavirus (COVID19) was a global pandemic, people everywhere started to think of creative solutions to help ease the problems of the virus. One solution was to convert hotels into hospitals (H2H ©) and into housing for healthcare workers. With the virus halting travel, many hotels were left close to vacant. On top of that, many healthcare professionals were worried about traveling back and forth between work and home, at the risk of infecting their household. Therefore, hotel managers came up with the idea of opening their doors to healthcare workers to solve two problems at once: limiting the spread of the virus and helping compensate for lost revenue. Another solution that hotel leaders offered was to turn their hotels into temporary hospitals, or alternative care sites (ACS). The American Hospital Association has projected that 30% of the US population (96 million) will test positive for COVID19, and 5% (4.8 million) will be hospitalized. [6] With so many people predicted to need hospitalization in a short time span, figuring out adequate accommodation is vital.

Click here to read more…

Authored by: Fred DeMicco, Executive Director and Professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University