The exterior of the Best Western Premier Waterfront Hotel in downtown Oshkosh during the winter. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Governor Tony Evers announced more than $18 million in COVID-19 Lodging Grants, which will be distributed to 663 hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts across the state. For some, the funding could mean the difference between keeping the lights on and closing for good.
“The thought process is ‘Hey, we’re trying to keep some businesses in business,’ and that these grants would be helpful to help these businesses to survive through this pandemic period,” said Oshkosh Best Western Premier Waterfront Hotel General Manager Daniel Schetter. “We’ve been fortunate that there’s been this thought process in mind to help out these businesses to keep running until we can get past this pandemic period.”
While the survival or permanent closure stress isn’t quite as imminent for them, Schetter says the $61,600 they’re set to receive will be helpful in offsetting all kinds of operational costs.
“[It] sounds like a lot of money. It is a lot of money, but our average utilities alone are over $30,000 a month. So when you look at something like that, you try to put it in perspective – add your mortgage and interest on top of that, and then we’re a heavily utilized business from a labor standpoint,” Schetter explained. “But any little bit helps, we’re happy to have it, and it’ll help sustain us a little while longer. So that’s great news for us.”
On average, business is down anywhere from 50 to 70-percent. For the state of Wisconsin alone, it’s near 50-percent. Nationally, it’s near 50-percent. Schetter says the Oshkosh and Fox Cities market is down over 60-percent.
“You’d hate to overstate something, but it really has been a huge, huge hit on the hotels not just in our market but statewide and nationally…It’s been a huge impact. And you hate to use the word ‘devastating,’ but it really has been that,” Schetter said. “This is survival for a lot of properties. Especially smaller mom-and-pop type businesses, it really is about survival at this point…Everybody’s trying to stay viable, and they’re trying to control costs. These grants will definitely be a big help for all the hotels to hopefully stay viable for a little longer until we turn the corner on this pandemic and its effect.”
But the biggest priority for Schetter is ensuring that their workers have a way to pay rent. The grant funding will help ease those costs.
“Number one, we want to keep our team members. That’s most important. So we’re trying to keep our people working, but there’s so many other places that these dollars can go towards,” Schetter said. “We just want to keep our people working. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to do that and this grant money will help with that as well.”
Schetter says as people aimed to partake in outdoor activities more often and followed guidance to avoid larger indoor gatherings, the northern and more rural properties did a bit better than most.
“The hotels that are probably taking the biggest hits are the city center hotels, downtown properties, businesses that – for us, we run the Oshkosh Convention Center for example, we manage that. And group events are nonexistent right now,” Schetter told WTAQ News. “There’s the concerns about liability for an association or maybe a corporate entity in having a group gatherings. Not to mention the simple fact of the possibility of COVID spreading when you’re together in groups, so people are playing it safe as they should…But for a hotel like us who depends on group business, that makes that impact even more devastating.”
The Best Western Premier Waterfront also operates the Ground Round restaurant on Oshkosh’s riverwalk. As one might predict, those operations also took a hit.
“That impact is probably even more negative to be honest with you than what it is for the hotel itself. So it’s definitely a challenge this year, there’s no question about it,” Schetter said.
Another challenge, even if things start to open up in the near future, is the winter season. It’s usually slower than the rest of the year in the first place, and that’s something that could compound the financial stress on lodging operators across the state.
As a member of both the national and state lodging associations, Schetter has heard all types of statistics thrown around regarding what the impact of the pandemic could be. Right now, he says without additional government assistance, hotels across the country are losing about 400 jobs per hour. Projections show almost half of hotels would close within six months without any assistance to help them remain viable.
“Maybe by June, people will start wanting to do group gatherings again and it’ll be safe to do so. That’s what we’re waiting for as a group hotel,” Schetter said.
Grantees were awarded an average of approximately $350 per eligible room in Wisconsin. More information about the grant program can be found here. A full list of grant winners is available here.
Comments