Newsletter Sample

Subject Line: This Week’s News for the Hotel and Lodging Industry
Pretext: Cases of COVID-19 in the US skyrocket to highest amount in the world, the Senate
passes $2 trillion CARES Act, and multiple states pass stay-at-home orders.

“I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do” –
NBC’s The Office and the world’s favorite boss, Michael Scott, who has conveyed our
current feelings into words.

What’s New This Week?

By Ashtin Rose

Here are a few of this week’s top news stories impacting the hotel and lodging industry.

1. The U.S. beat the world in the highest number of coronavirus cases this week.

No way? Even more than China?

Yes way. The United States has become the novel epicenter of the pandemic. Including both
confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, over 140,000 U.S. citizens have come down
with the sickness, and over 2,400 people have died. That number is close to double what outside
countries have overcome – with only 81,518 cases of the virus infecting China. Yikes.

What does this mean for traveling?

The good news is that only 886 cases have resulted from traveling, which is much less than any
other type of spread, and helps to ease the burden placed on the hospitality industry since the
virus is spreading through different avenues above traveling. However, the industry is still facing
some major hardships.
Since the beginning of the public-health emergency made its debut in the country, the hotel
industry has already lost more than $5 billion dollars in room revenue, and that number isn’t
going down anytime soon. At that pace, the industry is looking to lose $3.5 billion every week,
not including the additional money that could potentially be lost depending on how much worse
this could get.
Striding right alongside the industry’s major money losses, 70% of hotel employees have either
been laid off or furloughed.

What is the difference between laid off and furloughed?

Neither one of these concepts means termination, which is great news in retrospect to what was
previously stated.
A layoff is a technical temporary separation from a company’s payroll. Essentially, the company
doesn’t have enough work for that person to do and they need to get them out of the office for a
while to ease their payroll. When a company believes they’ll be able to regain that work in the
near future, they will simply bring that person back on board.
A furlough is keeping employees on the payroll, but basically the company is trying to
(permissibly and honestly) cut an employee’s hours in order to save some money.

2. The Senate passed a $2 Trillion CARES Act.

Do we get money?
Depending on your income, you might. The CARES Act is an aid package that has been put in
place to provide emergency relief to Americans amidst all the chaos. Basically, people are
getting some cash money. Most individuals making less than $75,000 can expect to get $1,200
from the government. This amount varies based on whether you’re single or hitched, as well as
your number of kids, etc.

What’s the catch?

Let’s talk about the good news first. Emergency grants and forgivable loan programs have been
set up for smaller businesses who employ less than 500 people. The government has also set
aside around $500 billion for bigger businesses and corporations in loans and other money.
As for the bad news, big corporations will have to publicly disclose their government loans as
well as make sure to pay them back.

3. A number of states have passed stay-at-home orders for residents.

Nobody can leave?

Governors are advising people to only leave their homes when absolutely necessary. As far as
the lodging industry goes… an expected cut in bookings is underway.

Okay… But can I still walk my dog?

Yes, since social distancing isn’t doing enough to halt the spread of the virus, about 30 states
have passed stay-at-home orders that advise residents to remain inside their homes for a
particular number of days. That includes about 225 million of us. But the good news is that we
can walk our dogs and chill outdoors as long as we keep at least 6 feet between ourselves and
others. So, don’t go knocking on your neighbor’s door for eggs or sugar. Just yell from across the
yard.
And let’s not forget…

Marriott’s major data breach: Marriott International sent out a recent notification to about 5.2
million guests that they had undergone a data breach between mid-January and late-February that
could have potentially given a person or two personal guest information. Marriott is still
investigating, but the company doesn’t believe that any residential addresses or credit card
information was accessed, so not to dramatically worry.

We Travel Forward paves a way to maintain support for their business: A new online travel
directory helps consumers to pay for their hotels and lodging now and use them later in order to
support the hotel industry and ensure that traveling is still available after the pandemic.

Crestline Hotels & Resorts gains two more hotels: The Hampton Inn Birmingham/Mountain
Brook in Birmingham, Alabama and the Homewood Suties by Hilton in Augusta, Georgia were
both turned over to Crestline Hotels & Resorts to manage.

Aimbridge Hospitality appoints Erica Hageman: Erica Hageman has been appointed as the
new Chief Government Affairs Officer for Aimbridge Hospitality. Erica will be responsible for
ensuring that Aimbridge hotel owners are informed about legislation news and government
information.

A good giggle:
And that’s it for this week’s briefing! Hope to see you back here soon! – Ashtin