BATON ROUGE, La (WVLA-WGMB)– One of Louisiana’s number one industries, hotels and tourism has nearly crashed since the pandemic hit mid-March.
Baton Rouge hotels are usually busy during this time of the year, but the pandemic is
causing them to take a hit to their bottom line.
“Even when we had the floods several years ago, none of our Baton Rouge hotels were affected. I think this is going to be a bad year and will carry over into 2021,” says Paul Arrigo, President Visit BR.
Despite that hardship, General Manager Scott Michelet with the Crowne Plaza Hotel says staff are
taking extra steps to make sure to wipe down surface areas as well as using extra disinfectant cleaning in hotel rooms.
According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, 70% of hotel employees have been
laid off and eight in 10 rooms are empty nationwide.