Hotel industry pushing Pritzker to allow reopening of ballrooms, conference rooms
Hotel industry pushing Pritzker to allow reopening of ballrooms, conference rooms
Hotels say without some relief soon to permit larger crowds for weddings and conferences, some could be checking out for good.
CHICAGO - Illinois’ hotel industry is sending a wakeup call to Governor JB Pritzker.
Hotels say without some relief soon to permit larger crowds for weddings and conferences, some could be checking out for good.
Michael Jacobson of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association gave FOX 32 a show-and-tell tour of a ballroom equipped for social distancing.
“You’re usually used to a water pitcher in the middle of the table. Now it’s all bottled water. Instead of buffets like many hotel events we’re used to experiencing, each of the plates will be served À la carte, of course covered,” Jacobson said.
In late June, Illinois is expected to move into Phase 4 of its reopening plan, which would allow gatherings of up to 50 people.
But the hotel industry says that’s simply not enough to accommodate the weddings, meetings and business conferences still on the books.
“The math’s just not adding up, and our fear is the longer we’re not able to get back to some sort of our business, the more likelihood it is we lose a lot of hotels for good,” Jacobson said.
Those hotels want the governor to allow them to operate at 50-percent capacity when Phase 4 begins. The governor, whose family made its billions in the hotel industry, says he understands the concerns, but still needs to be smart about reopening.
“I also need to listen to the epidemiologists who say that in indoor facilities, in particular, we need to stay to some limits,” Pritzker said.
For now, the governor says that number will remain 50.
“It just dramatically drops off the level of business we can do to the point it doesn’t make sense to have those meetings because of the number of employees it takes to provide that service,” said Juan Leyva, GM of London House Chicago.
The hotel industry employs nearly 300,000 people in the state of Illinois.