Hotel owner Reggie Winfield is far more relaxed about his Lafayette property now that the coronavirus pandemic hits its anniversary.
In the beginning it was much worse.
How terrible? Winfield, owner of Windfeel Properties, renamed his 50-room boutique hotel at 1015 W. Pinhook Road to Clarion Pointe on March 11th after purchasing the property last spring. He redesigned it and fitted in all of the new furniture and large castable TVs that required a new fiber optic line to the building.
A little over a week later, Governor John Bel Edwards issued a stay-at-home order and business in Winfield’s hotels and other states nearly stalled. The income was as good as ceased. A large number of hotels across the state closed, at least temporarily.
Winfield didn’t want to close his new property, but he almost did when he took all staff off except security and temporarily occupied it himself. Reservations were so infrequent over the next two months that he can now count the total on his fingers with a few digits left.
“I can say that now because it’s in the rearview mirror: we left the door open and didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Winfield, who said he had stayed at the hotel for a couple of weeks. “We didn’t know when things would end. I didn’t mean to close. Everything in the hotel was brand new. You do what you have to do. I definitely didn’t want to close it and get in. There is nothing worse than a hotel that goes dark. “
Everyone is talking about the headlines about the impact of the pandemic on the restaurant industry, which has hit the stomach hard, but the blow the country’s hotel industry has suffered may be more like a 1980s Mike Tyson blow to the chin . And it was one of the slowest to recover.
In September, around half of hotel owners across the country reported their properties were on the verge of foreclosureAccording to a survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. By November, over 70% said they could survive only six months without further relief from the federal government. Hilton Hotels reported $ 720 million in losses in 2020.
In the municipality of Lafayette, gross revenues fell as occupancy fell to 26% in April and 35% in May, according to Lafayette Travel. This forced some hotels to close temporarily, but two fully-fledged hotels have already closed permanently this year. The Garden Plaza Hotel & Conference Center as well as the Wyndham Garden Lafayette, both of which struggled prior to the pandemic, have been sold and are being converted into apartments.
Nationwide, about 40% of hotels closed at the start of the pandemic and about 10% will remain closed, said Bill Langkopp, executive director of the Louisiana Hotel & Lodging Association. Most of these closings are in New Orleans or Lake Charles.
However, the activity begins upon return. A full recovery can take an additional two years.
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“We see progress only very slowly,” said Langkopp. “In northern Louisiana, this I-20 corridor outperforms southern Louisiana. We see a lot of activity in children’s sports. It will be interesting to see South Louisiana come back. No conventions or meetings are very slow to restore. The participants have a pent-up desire to return to these events. It will take some time. “
The Lafayette market has shown signs of recovery, largely thanks to the youth sports market and the large establishments in Broussard, Youngsville and Carencro that host it. The biggest boost came in the late summer months, when the hurricane that encircled the Lake Charles area took most residents to Lafayette hotels and helped gross revenues exceed $ 13 million for September and October.
Hotels in the city of Lafayette had their best unrelated hurricane month in March, data from Lafayette Economic Development Agency shows.
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However, higher occupancy on the weekends and some during the week is not enough for Lafayette’s largest and now only full-service hotel, the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton. General manager Jimmy Thackston said it was holding a big meeting – the Louisiana Health Care Financial Management Association – that ended last week.
The event, which usually reserves 100 rooms for its meeting, only booked 40.
“My shortcoming is that I can only get back to normal when associations and companies start traveling again,” said Thackston. “I urgently need meetings. In my case, meetings with 300 to 500 people. I just need social distancing guidelines to get relief. You will see these hotels that don’t have meeting rooms that are just hotel rooms – these hotels are likely to be close to pre-COVID occupancy. “
Thackston and others are watching closely what happens to the Louisiana Rural Water Association’s annual conference, due to be held at the Cajundome Convention Center for four days in mid-July. This event traditionally means 4,500 overnight stays and over 1,000 participants, but how many of them will come this year is uncertain.
Hang up is the state’s policy on social distancing and how many attendees are allowed to enter the convention center since it is a government facility.
“It will be one of the largest conventions we have ever hosted,” said Ben Berthelot, President and CEO of Lafayette Travel. “If this goes the way we hope it will then, in my opinion, it is a really good sign that the business of meetings and conventions is back. We will only know a little more closely which occupancy is permissible for the event. I’m really looking forward to seeing if that can happen, and then I’ll have a much better feeling about the second half of the year. “
The DoubleTree will host the event, and by then Thackston is hoping to have more staff to handle the influx of business. Human resources is a major hurdle, like in other industries at the moment, as he hopes to address some of them during a hospitality job fair on May 18th.
The hotel, which in its heyday employed 135 full-time employees, now has approximately 50 full-time employees and an additional 20 part-time employees.
“We have very few people working in the food and beverage industry because there is no need,” he said. “At an event like me (last week) I had to find 10 people to work one day. I don’t know when I can call her next time. This is a good job for students and people who have other full-time jobs. “
Back at the Clarion Pointe Hotel in Winfield, he had to turn to recruitment agencies to meet his manpower needs and, after 90 days, offer housekeepers a starting wage of $ 12 an hour and a signing bonus of $ 150.
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It is not so much that employees on leave stay on the sidelines and receive unemployment benefits. Many cannot return to work or have moved on to other jobs or careers due to family commitments, Langkopp said.
But more business means more employees. Winfield has noticed a spike on the weekends, but those midweek activities from events and festivals are still lacking. Fall football games at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette that allow for more capacity will help, as will a normal fall festival schedule that accounts for 20% of hotel revenue.
“We just have to wait and see what happens,” said Winfield. “And be patient. I hope that some of our creditors will be as patient as they were last year. We saw some hotels nearby and didn’t make it. It hurts to see it as a hotelier even when they might be a competitor. You don’t want to see anyone around, but it happens. “
