Should Marriott provide free/discounted rooms to healthcare providers?
 

This seems to be a trending thread on twitter. No response from Marriott it seems.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d44974be4b.png


I'm not sure how this would work, it's most likely the individual properties who would bear the burden and risk of fulfilling this function. Of course I definitely see the need, and appreciate the healthcare workers though I think the Healthcare providers should be providing the accommodation for nurses and doctors.

Of course they could if they wanted to - Four Seasons is doing so in NYC.

https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-n...e-workers-free

They could — and perhaps should — create a heavily discounted rate plan, like the GOV rates, available to medical personnel during the current crisis. It would be a pretty decent goodwill gesture on their part.

See: https://en.brinkwire.com/us/st-regis...eld-hospitals/

I am emotionally biased as my daughter is a RN in a NYC ICU unit treating Covid19 patients. Luckily she lives only four blocks away. Her hospital is providing lodging for employees that commute. That being said, I will certainly move my future business to companies that support the front line medical professionals like Four Seasons and Hertz.

I would think discounted rates for health care workers isn't a bad idea, but I don't think Marriott is in a position to be handing out charity right now. They'd have to find a balance between at least a break even rate and good PR.

As much as one would assume giving, for example, a 25% discount to health care workers would be good PR, it's only a matter of time before the Twitter-verse and other media begin to bash them for being "a huge corporation with deep pockets and only giving a 25% discount". Unfortunately that's the political environment we find our country in right now.

If Marriott owned its properties, you would be correct. Since Marriott doesn't own much, except a lot of names, some fancier than others with more thread count and better soap and shampoo, it probably can't force any property owners into doing this.

They’re doing this in PHL and other cities.

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I don't think Marriott has any control over this, it's most likely something that the owners of each hotel will need to approve as they're the ones who are footing the bill for everything. If the owners are able to foot the bill, this isn't a bad thing to do for the community. It also allows some employees to work if they choose to do so, as I'm sure the owners will make sure that their employees are up for it as well.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...international/

Marriott averaged ~$1.5B in net income each of the last three years. Not a bad run. If they wanted to subsidize some of those franchised hotel owners a bit (even the terrible ones that make all their employees at dozens of their hotels come in every day, even with single digit occupancy, and counter social distancing best practices) in the name of the public good, they could.

Other companies are turning their regular production lines into making sanitizer, masks, ventilators, etc. Marriott is the so-called biggest hotel company in the world - how are they chipping in?

Before we find the bad guys here, I'd like to know if anyone has asked the hotel if they would do this.

I wonder how they would handle logistics like laundry and housekeeping? You are potentially exposing the hotel workers.

Hotels offer distressed passenger deeply discounted rates to airlines in case of flight cancellations. Clearly the hotels are not in general losing money on these rates. A deeply discounted rate for workers at nearby hospitals should have the same economic logic.
Rooms would likely otherwise go unoccupied.
These people would not otherwise stay at the hotel.
We can provide a valuable service to them and improve our revenue at the same time.

Seems sensible