SF Hospitality Industry: Step Up!

I know the hospitality industry in San Francisco is hurting. We were actually part of it. We ran a completely above board AirBnB rental of a suite inside our own living space. We enjoyed meeting people from all over the world and the income helped us remain a single income household in a very expensive city. My wife was able to spend a lot of time helping out at our daughter’s school. That income has completely dried up. I’m sure the same thing has happened to hotels across the city. Well those people and that income isn’t coming back until the curve not just flattens but really decays. That will take months. In the meantime what are you doing with your space and your staff? Allow me to make a suggestion.

You voluntarily house people in your hotel who are spreading the virus out of desperation. This includes housing insecure people and some of the homeless population. Here’s the specifics of how this might work. A person might request space in your hotel. You would screen them and then if you accept them they would self quarantine for two weeks isolated in one of your rooms while you provide them room service meals. After two weeks they would be free to come and go and use your facilities as long as they kept whatever standards of behavior you put in place. They would agree to regular temperature checks to make sure they weren’t bringing in COVID-19 and they would be educated about how to minimize the spread. This is a completely voluntary agreement on both sides. Anyone can walk away.

If your hotel sits empty and the people stay on the streets than this virus has a reservoir in that community and it will come back and reinfect the general population and your hotel will continue to sit empty for months and months.