JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Despite Indiana being in its final stage of the COVID-19 reopening process, hotels in the state are far from free when it comes to financial struggles.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association is estimating nearly 700 of Indiana’s 1,045 hotels may permanently close if they don’t get additional government funding.
“It worries us a lot,” said Denise Story, who manages a hotel in Jeffersonville. “It worries every one of us. Being a GM of a hotel you have to worry about your employees.”
Nearly 9,500 hotel workers have been furloughed or laid off in the Hoosier state with the biggest impact in urban and downtown areas.
While the travel industry was hit the hardest from March until the end of May, it is slowly taking off again – however, Congress is going back and forth regarding another bailout or at least an extension for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Southern Indiana travel experts say since many daily activities are resuming, leisure travel may take a back seat.
“School starts in August and that starts to go down again, and so we are back to that base of business travel because less leisure and we still don't have meetings and conferences going on,” said SoIN Tourism Executive Director Jim Epperson.
Unpaid debts due to either the remodeling of older hotels or the construction of newer ones, mixed with a pandemic, could lead to more foreclosures.
Story said hotel managers in Jeffersonville are hoping this fall could turn the page and get the industry back on track, at least for now.
“We did have to lay a lot of people off but we were able to bring people back when we saw numbers starting to move up in June to present,” said Story.
Epperson says it could be at least 2023 until the hotel industry gets back to the way it was in 2019.
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