Two more Chicago hotels have shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak, joining a growing list of hotel properties that have closed their doors.
The 297-key 21c Museum Hotel in River North — which opened last month — and the 1,544-key Hilton Chicago have closed or will be closing their doors, according to the Chicago Tribune. Industry analysts said to expect more in the coming weeks.
The Hilton at 720 S. Michigan Ave., will suspend operations on Friday, a Hilton spokesperson told the Tribune. It is one of the largest hotels in the Chicago market. The 21c Museum Hotel at 55 East Ontario Street closed last week.
The list of Chicago hotels that have shuttered so far includes the Peninsula, the Park Hyatt Chicago, the Omni, Four Seasons, The Hoxton, Hotel Zachary, Virgin Hotels Chicago and more.
Chicago’s hotel occupancy dropped by a third between March 8 and 14, and analysts at the time said that figure would grow in the coming weeks. The average daily room rate also dropped more than 12 percent.
“Now, I expect April will run under 20 percent occupancy for downtown,” Stavey Nadolny, managing director of hospitality consulting firm HVS Chicago, told the Tribune.
To help ease a potential overflow of sick patients and to boost hotel revenues, city officials are offering to pay up to $175 per night to fill thousands of hotel rooms with people who have tested positive for Covid-19, or have been exposed to the virus.
[Tribune] — Jacqueline Flynn