DECATUR, IL (WAND) – Illinois has now entered the bridging phase of the Restore Illinois plan. This means that companies can increase their capacity limits.
The biggest changes in capacity limits affect event venues, museums and zoos, which can increase their capacity limits from 25 to 60 percent.
Brit Mckinney, Horve Hospitality’s regional operations manager, said this will allow their venues to hold more normal events.
“The new bridge program allows 250 people (and) those are only unvaccinated people,” Mckinney said. “Anyone who is vaccinated is not one of them. That gives us the opportunity to have these big group events and get business going again in all of our homes.”
Mckinney said after a tough year, officials are already seeing summer bookings.
“A lot of our properties sell out again on the weekends,” said Mckinney. “We really see this influx in both occupancy and the average daily rate.”
Horve Hospitality has five hotels in Illinois, and at one point they really had problems.
“At the height of COVID-19, some of our five properties were only two, three, four percent occupied a week, and that’s just not operational and we couldn’t keep it going,” added Mckinney.
Other companies, such as the Illinois Children’s Museum, also had financial problems.
“Closing and then reopening during the pandemic caused us a lot more cleaning supplies and human resources, so if we can get more revenue it will be a little easier,” said President and CEO Abby Koester.
Now with new workarounds, these places look forward to welcoming guests back in a more normal way.
“But it’s just so much fun for everyone who’s been waiting for kids to come in,” Koester said. “You hear laughter, you hear families play, you hear the sounds of the exhibits.”
