CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Businesses and hotels in the Charlotte area are seeing the impact of coronavirus in their industry.
Vinay Patel with Sree Hotels, LLC oversees 12 hotels in the Charlotte area, including the Embassy Suites on South Tryon Street and two in Uptown Charlotte.
"You've had group cancellations left, right, and center," Patel says. "This hotel alone from March 2 to today, has had almost $700,000 worth of cancellations just for the months of March and April."
Patel says Charlotte is a hub for corporate business, which normally works in his favor. Concerns over the coronavirus have been bad for business.
"Charlotte is a transient market. A lot of corporate business. Every company, every major company has said we're not doing any travel, so it's affecting us. It's affecting everybody," Patel says.
With fewer rooms occupied, Patel says he's making some changes to try and save money, while also helping guests.
"Maybe we shut down the top two floors, deep clean the top two floors, and then rotate it back in, and close two more down," he says. "So it does two things. One, it saves energy because you've got the room shut down. Two, we're able to deep clean it."
Patel says he's expecting a bounce back later this year. He says a lot of people are planning on rescheduling their events, which means they will rebook rooms and hotel space once they choose a new date.