A COLLABORATION BETWEEN Google and the American Hotel & Lodging Association will make it easier for first responders and healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to find hotel rooms. It is part of AHLA’s “Hospitality for Hope” program that matches emergency and healthcare workers who require temporary housing with hotels.
The new program allows the more than 17,000 hotels participating in “Hospitality for Hope” by offering discounts or special accommodations for frontline or essential workers to add that information to their Google business profile.
“Our industry is centered around people taking care of people and this crisis is no different. Central to every community, hotel employees have risen to the occasion in record numbers to support those putting their lives on the line to care for others,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA. “By working together with Google we will be able to help countless more first responders find respite at local hotels.”
Through state lodging associations and directly, “Hospitality for Hope” also encourages cooperation between hotels and local, state and federal government agencies in fighting the coronavirus. In Chicago, for example, the city rented thousands of hotel rooms to be used for people diagnosed with the disease or who believe they’ve been exposed so they can be isolated, a program it created with help from the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association according to the Chicago Tribune.
Similar programs have been announced in California and New York City. Several hotel companies also have been offering free or discounted rooms to emergency workers.
Go here to join the “Hospitality for Hope” initiative.
