Here are the exact steps hotel owners can take to open their vacant hotel rooms to medical workers and patients during the coronavirus outbreak

Melissa Wiley

Apr 1, 2020, 19:16 IST

ARMEND NIMANI/AFP via Getty Images

A worker wearing a protective suit disinfects a hotel room as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, on March 16, 2020 in Pristina, Kosovo.

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the globe, hotels are seeing unprecedented declines in occupancy, and healthcare agencies are rushing to find resources and beds for medical workers and patients.
Last week, global property management company Cloudbeds and the American Hotel and Lodging Association launched campaigns to connect lodging providers with healthcare and government agencies in need of rooms.
Since Cloudbeds launched its #HospitalityHelps campaign on March 23, over 1.2 million beds have been pledged.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association has already identified 6,500 properties willing to offer up empty hotel rooms through its Hospitality for Hope initiative launched March 24.
Here are the exact steps hotel owners and lodging providers can take to register their hotels through the two campaigns and connect with agencies and governments in need of assistance.
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Cloudbeds, a global property management company that works with over 20,000 properties in 157 countries, launched a campaign called #HospitalityHelps on March 23 to connect lodging providers with empty beds to healthcare and government agencies in need of housing for patients and first responders.

To offer up available rooms, hotel and lodging owners can navigate to hospitalityhelps.org and click on the green "I Have Beds" button at the top of the screen.

After clicking on the "I Have Beds" button, a form pops up asking lodging providers for information including preferred contact method (email, text, or either) and property type.

The property type dropdown options range from hotels to vacation rentals and RV parks. While cities and agencies are currently prioritizing accommodations with 100 or more rooms, Cloudbeds is accepting all property types in anticipation of future need.

The bottom half of the form asks for total rooms and total beds available. It includes a space for comments and a note stating that by submitting the form, lodging owners are not committing to participation in the program.

Once submitted, the form redirects to this confirmation message.

Cloudbeds will also send a message to your contact method of choice saying that it will be in touch if a healthcare or government agency in your area has expressed a need for beds. The email includes a note that discussions regarding payments, discounts, and contracts are up to the properties and agencies.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association launched a similar campaign on March 24 called Hospitality for Hope to connect US hotel properties with healthcare and government agencies.

US hotel owners and general managers interested in volunteering their rooms can navigate to ahla.com/ahlas-hospitality-hope-initiative, click on the red "Click Here" button under "Hotel Involvement," and fill out this Google Form.

The form asks for both an email and phone number as well as number of rooms and leaves a space for comments.

The submitted form will redirect to this confirmation page.

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