Monterey Peninsula hotels prepping for weekend reopening

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) The tourism-dependent hotel industry in the Monterey Peninsula is steadily prepping to reopen starting this Friday for non-essential guests after a long three months mostly being shuttered.

The Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates a short term loss of $400 to $500 million in tourism spending in the first three months of the pandemic that has shut down much of the Central Coast economy.

Dozens of hotels were closed, leaving thousands of rooms empty and over 13,000 hospitality workers without jobs.

Since many businesses in Monterey, along Alvarado Street and Cannery Row, are reopening under less restrictive state COVID-19 guidelines, hotels are hoping more people will start showing up to the area to stay for a bit.

"It's been pretty devastating as far as the amount of lost revenue and the effects on our employees not working as many hours," said Todd Wessing, the director of sales and marketing at Hotel Pacific in Monterey. "It impacts our whole industry unfortunately."

But revised health guidelines released last week by the state government for hotels are putting the industry back in business, albeit with some changes. Wearing masks, social distancing and using plastic barriers in the lobby will help keep things safe for visitors and workers as well.

Hot tubs and dining areas are still closed for hotels.

"There's new cleaning protocols in place. Employees, when they arrive to work, will have their temperatures taken. If anybody has any type of sickness, they'll be suggested to go home," said Wessing.

"It's a major disaster. It was horrible. This is a primarily tourist area right here," said Leonard Chriss, a Monterey resident.

Resident in Monterey are feeling the economic turmoil the pandemic has caused on their local businesses. Hotels are still looking to hire staff back once things pick up.

But it could take some time before industry fully recovers from the losses, especially with many annual events still cancelled on the Central Coast.

"Typically at this time of year, we're sold out or close to sold out from now until the end of fall," said Wessing. "It'll be interesting to see with especially all of the events that've been cancelled."

The visitors bureau suggested previously if the pandemic and economic impacts lasted for even longer, perhaps close to the end of the year, there could have been billion in lost revenue.

"I've been sitting here on the outside, and tourists have been walking back and forth," said Chriss. "So they're coming back, it's just a matter of how gradual it's going to be."

Hotel Pacific says they have been getting numerous calls throughout the day of people interested in traveling to the area once again.