‘2020 is gone’: Hotel operators see bleak months ahead thanks to coronavirus
Mary Kay Wydra, president of the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, said hotels have already suffered a drop in occupancy rates from a seasonally normal 60% to 20%. And occupancy rates will be stuck at about 20% into May, a time of year when 80% or more of hotel rooms normally would be full. “This May is not going to be like any May we’ve ever had before,” said Shardool Parmar, president of the Pioneer Valley Hotel Group. “I think a lot of it is going to be on whatever the state decides as businesses reopen. This is an industry that needs demand drivers. Six Flags, UMass, the Big E, they all need to be open for us to be busy. If they are not going to be open, that’s going to be a very difficult rest of the year.”