JOBS LOST IN GEORGIA HOTEL INDUSTRY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

24,200 direct hotel-related jobs lost

104,381 total jobs lost supporting hotel industry

GEORGIA HOTELIERS SHARING THEIR HARDSHIP

Jim Flanagan – Atlanta, GA

“As a hotelier in Georgia I have experienced firsthand.. furloughed 11 Associates on Friday 13 March 2020, with a hopeful return date of 1 June 2020. No job classification is safe from this event. We will not be purchasing from our suppliers and our stock on hand will go bad.”

Cheryl Pattee – Kennesaw, GA

“We have had significant revenue loss as many Groups and Corporate clients have cancelled their reservations. We have had to furlough many critical staff who need to provide for their families.”

James Bennett – Dunwoody, GA

“I have experienced firsthand business levels dramatically decreasing relating to events (group travel) and individual business travel being halted across our Nation and the World. Owners of hotels are forced to reduce staff through layoffs and furloughs affecting workers (with rates close to minimum wage) and the most in need of the bi-weekly pay and insurance.”

Pete Patel – Decatur, GA

“We would be forced to lay off 75 full time employees and many more part time employees with our hotels experiencing near zero occupancy levels in our locally owned hotels in GA.”

Gabriele Webster – Atlanta, GA

“We have had massive layoffs, our Occupancy is less than 10%, we have furloughed our entire restaurant staff and our managers are working 10-12 hours a day. We lose up to $5,000 a DAY, and it is only getting worse!”

HEADLINES ACROSS GEORGIA ON IMPACT TO HOTEL INDUSTRY

86 news stories in Georgia regarding impact to hotel industry on broadcast, print and online news outlets including:

The Telegraph – A Cruel Paradox: Beating Virus Means Causing US Recession

“Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, noted that hotels last year were, on average, roughly 67% full.Now? “We’re probably under 20% nationwide and headed south," he said. "If, by the end of the year, we get up to 35% and nothing else happens, that will be about 4 million jobs lost.””

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Atlanta’s Low-Wage Workers: Most At Risk, First To Be Cut In Crisis

“Much of the U.S. economy has slowed dramatically, starting with restaurants, hotels and travel companies coping with empty rooms and canceled plans. Many of them are already letting workers go. That will include many of the roughly 925,000 people in the metro region — 40% of all workers — whose jobs pay $15.40 an hour or less, said Nicole Bateman, policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. “This is a population that is extremely vulnerable. We will see people who already had trouble taking care of basic needs unable to pay the rent and pay their bills.”