Santa Fe Standard

For one Santa Fe hotel employee among thousands furloughed from their jobs last week by nationwide hospitality management company due to COVID-19, the pandemic is just the latest blow since coming down with a severe health condition last summer.

"The gentlemen came down with a brain tumor in the summer of 2019," Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza General Manager John Rickey said in a statement to the Santa Fe Standard provided by Remington Hotels, which manages the property. "He has two small children a ton of debt to cover from just the copay."

The furloughed 24-year Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza employee still faces another round of chemotherapy. 

Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza General Manager John Rickey.

"He has a feeding tube because of the burns to his throat make it impossible to swallow," Rickey said. "The man wants to stay working, he wants to try to work and have his treatment, but in this awful time he has been forced into a furlough."

The furloughed employee's shock and terror were palpable, Rickey said.

"The fear in his eyes, that he may not be able to complete his treatment, this is heart wrenching," Rickey said.

The furloughed employee is one of many suffering because of the economic effects of COVID-19.

"Remington Hotels is struggling in the face of the coronavirus," Remington Hotels President and CEO Sloan Dean III said in his own statement to the Santa Fe Standard.

Dean's appointment as president and CEO of Remington Hotels was announced in December.

Remington, founded in 1968, is a hotel management company that also provides providing property management services. Its hospitality wing manages 86 hotels in 26 states across 17 brands.

The suffering of Remington Hotels' employees is a small portion of the larger story about how COVID-19 threatens the world's economy. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned earlier this week that COVID-19 could drive unemployment in the U.S. to 20 percent, levels not seen since the Great Depression.

The travel and hospitality industry is asking for about $150 billion in relief.

Like the rest of the industry, Remington Hotels has been hit hard by COVID-19, which has sunk its business to "beyond depression levels" and Remington anticipates losses this year in the hundreds of millions, Dean said.

Remington Hotels expects hotels that it manages to run at 90 perecent lower occupancy levels in April 2020, compared to the same month last year, Dean said.

"Most all of our 6,800 associates are furloughed," he said, adding that the entire situation is a "disaster."

Even those not furloughed are suffering, Remington Hotels Human Resources Director Elizabeth Lupercio said in her own statement to the Santa Fe Standard.

"We currently have minimal staff and the uncertainty of how this will affect us moving forward is difficult to bear and shows in the demeanor and mindset of the current remaining staff," she said. "Our associates depend on their jobs to provide for their children and families."

More than 100 associates have been furloughed at La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa, which Lupercio said she keenly felt.

"My duties as a human resources director is to get people employed and guide them through their careers," she said. "I feel as if I have let them down due to these unfortunate circumstances which no one could have predicted."

Dean said assistance will need to come from the nation's top leadership.

Priorities for the entire industry were presented to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 17 by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Those priorities are emergency assistance for employees, a workforce stabilization fund from the U.S. Treasury Department, preservation of business liquidity that would include $100 billion for employee retention and rehiring, and tax relief

"For many Americans in our sector, this health crisis will be compounded by economic hardship in the coming weeks and months," Dean said. "Congress must act now!! Time is essential as unemployment claims in hospitality will be in the millions."