North Palm Beach Today

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on Embassy Suites PGA Boulevard – Palm Beach Gardens, the company that manages it, the travel and hotel industry and the rest of the world is unprecedented, the property's general manager said in a recent statement.

"As the general manager, it was extremely hard to tell employees that we have no hours for them," the Embassy Suites General Manager Tiffany Scott said in a statement to North Palm Beach Today. 

The Embassy Suites property on PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens is managed by Remington Hotels.  

President Donald Trump, with an aide, signing the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act earlier this month

"My team includes servers for restaurants, banquets cooks, housekeepers, supervisors, engineers front desk and managers," Scott said.

Or at least her team did include those associates. Most were furloughed without notice last week. Those who remain in their jobs mostly are working severely cut hours.

"Watching employees leave the hotel," Scott said. "Walking them out and telling them we will be OK and to hang in there, that was tough. To hold back tears because you understand the struggle that your employee is about to go through. Employees you may not see again because at the end of the day, they have to survive and thrive in their own home life. Not knowing how long this is going to be if June doesn't see improvement."

The Palm Beach Gardens property's furloughed employees were among several thousands of Remington Hotels associates nationwide let go in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has dramatically reduced the number of hotel guests worldwide.

"They all have families and most hourly employees live check to check," Scott said. "I remember being in this situation myself.  Sometimes trying to make two-weeks worth of groceries last a month. Some employers are single mothers and fathers. Where will their income be now?"  

No one knows the answer to that question or what will become of the travel and hotel industry so hard struck by COVID-19.

"Remington Hotels is struggling in the face of the coronavirus," Remington Hotels President and CEO Sloan Dean III said in a own statement.

Dean's appointment as president and CEO of Remington Hotels was announced in December.

Remington, founded in 1968, is a hotel management company that also provides providing property management services. Its hospitality wing manages 86 hotels in 26 states across 17 brands.

The suffering of Remington Hotels' employees is a small portion of the larger story about how COVID-19 threatens the world's economy. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned earlier this week that COVID-19 could drive unemployment in the U.S. to 20%, levels not seen since the Great Depression.

The travel and hospitality industry is asking for about $150 billion in relief.

Like the rest of the industry, Remington Hotels has been hit hard by COVID-19, which has sunk its business to "beyond depression levels" and Remington anticipates losses this year in the hundreds of millions, Dean said.

Remington Hotels expects hotels that it manages to run at 90% lower occupancy levels in April 2020, compared to the same month last year, Dean said.

"Most all of our 6,800 associates are furloughed," he said, adding that the entire situation is a "disaster."

Priorities for the entire industry should be exactly what the American Hotel and Lodging Association presented to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 17, Dean said.

Those priorities are emergency assistance for employees, a workforce stabilization fund from the U.S. Treasury Department, preservation of business liquidity that would include $100 billion for employee retention and rehiring, and tax relief. 

"For many Americans in our sector, this health crisis will be compounded by economic hardship in the coming weeks and months," Dean said. "Congress must act now!! Time is essential as unemployment claims in hospitality will be in the millions."