On April 5, the White House's Twitter account praised the hotels housing first responders and frontline medical workers battling the coronavirus. But President Donald Trump's hotels are reportedly not among them.
Thank you to hotels around the country for providing healthcare workers and first responders a place to stay while they're on the front lines of the pandemic. ???????? https://t.co/DR4YSdRqaG
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 5, 2020
Amid widespread coronavirus closures, the US hospitality industry has been sent into freefall. In spite of the financial toll, 15,000 US hotels — from independently operated businesses to large hotel chains — have pitched in to help medical personnel amid the pandemic, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
The association declined to release the name of hotels helping essential workers, but city officials in New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington, and Honolulu claimed Trump's properties were not participating, The Washington Post reported.
The Trump Organization operates 24 hotels and clubs around the world. Like other companies in the hospitality industry, the Trump Organization has been hit by the coronavirus lockdowns. At least 18 properties have closed due to government mandates, or by choice.
Trump's properties have laid off or furloughed more than 2,500 employees amid the pandemic.
The Post reached out to the Trump Organization and authorities in five cities where Trump's hotels are located, inquiring about their participation in essential worker housing programs. All but one in Honolulu have remained open amid the coronavirus outbreak, and none are included in the city's programs.
Ty Warner, the owner of the Four Seasons in New York, near Trump Tower, said he opened up rooms for medical workers because they "are working tirelessly on the front lines of this crisis. They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate."
Meanwhile, Trump Tower was not included in two lists of hotels offering reduced rates to hospital workers.
In Florida's Miami-Dade County, Trump's Doral resort continues to operate as usual. Miami-Dade has already rented out two hotels and is working with five more to provide rooms for a lowered rate of $35 per night for first responders and the homeless community. While other hotels offered to donate rooms, Doral was not among them, one official said.
"They did not volunteer, and we did not ask them," Frank Rollason, the head of emergency management for the Miami-Dade fire department, told The Post.
Chicago has reserved over 1,100 rooms at five hotels for hospital workers and patients with mild cases of the coronavirus — Trump's hotel in Chicago is not one of them. The hotel has remained opened and laid off 294 workers in amid the pandemic.
In Washington D.C., the Trump International Hotel is not among the three hotels being used to house frontline health workers, a city official told the Post.
