Hilton, American Express to Provide 1,000,000 Rooms to Medical Workers

Flags fly outside the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday, July 31, 2007. Hilton H
Reed Saxon/AP Photo

Hilton and American Express announced on Monday that they have partnered to offer up to one million rooms to tired medical workers.

Hilton, supported by ten medical associations, will host the medical professionals on the front lines of the war against the novel coronavirus — officially classified COVID-19 by the World Health Organization — from April 13 through the month of May. Rooms will be paid for by either of the two companies, or donated by the local owner of a given location.

“During this crisis, we have seen so many examples of medical professionals working in the most challenging circumstances, sacrificing their own needs for the greater good,” Hilton President and CEO Christopher Nassetta said in a statement. “They truly are heroes.”

The ability to have a place to self-isolate from family members during the height of the pandemic’s virality is a major step toward reducing stressors on the already desperately overtaxed medical workers saving lives in the field day and night. The rooms will be staffed by (paid) employees with extended health and safety training, and will be regularly sanitized.

“Across the United States, owners of Hilton hotels of every brand are eager to support their communities and be part of the solution,” Nassetta said. “They have been instrumental in making this response possible.”

But Hilton is not alone in its efforts: 15,000 other hotels have signed on with Hospitality for Hope, an American Hotel & Lodging Association initiative that helps both the medical population find needed sanctuary, and otherwise empty hotels to keep the lights on.

“Knowing that there is a safe, clean and comfortable hotel room waiting for you at the end of a long shift can make all the difference in the world right now,” American College of Emergency Physicians President William Jaquis said of the Hilton and American Express initiative in a statement.

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