By Hellen Zaboulani
An East Hamptons Inn has come up with a new business model for this summer, amid the ongoing pandemic. Hedges Inn, a historic bed and breakfast in East Hampton, will be offering the entire space to one renter. Many hotels have been forced to shutter their doors for fear of having the novel coronavirus spread throughout hotel guests. This luxury hotel usually splits the property which consists of 13 bedrooms, a commercial kitchen, a fully stocked bar and two lush acres of outdoor space. Usually, the hotel serves roughly 3,000 guests annually, with dozens of guests checking in at out regularly.
As reported to the NY Post, this year the inn has opted to offer the entire property to one tenant, to live in full-time from June 1 to Labor Day for $350,000 per month, for a total fee of $1 million, owners told the East Hampton Star. With an extra $100,000 the inn will include a chef and housekeeping staff for the fortunate tenant. This arrangement will help the hotel circumvent sanitation hassles in connection with the coronavirus. With revolving guests, even with all the cleaning protocols in place, keeping guests safe from pandemic may prove impossible.
“I didn’t feel great about the nightly turnover, encouraging people to come out here, and worrying about their health and the health of the staff and the community,” manager Jenny Lilja said. “So I thought, how can we adjust our business model?” Lilja added that “it’s been nothing but cancellations” this spring.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March hotel chains across the country have either closed or turned into housing for healthcare workers, Covid-19 patients, and the homeless. This is the first time in history that NYC hotels have been forced to close their doors, with the complete shutdown in tourism throughout the country. Starting March 20, the largest hotel in the Big Apple, The New York Hilton Midtown on Sixth Avenue, shuttered all 1,878 rooms indefinitely. The luxury Baccarat hotel on West 53rd Street was shuttered a day later as well as most of the hotels that were not converted into alternative housing. As per the Post, the coronavirus will likely hurt the industry more than the attacks of 9/11 or the Great Recession in 2008. NYC hotel occupancy rates fell to a low of 74 percent following 9/11, and to 79 percent after Lehman Brothers failure, as per Sean Hennessey, an NYU professor of hospitality and President of Lodging Advisors, a consulting firm.
