Brazil's hotel rooms turned into offices during pandemic

After the coronavirus made a dent in occupancy rates, several hotels in Brazil are marketing their rooms as workspaces while trying to find creative ways to test out new adventurous revenue streams amid the pandemic.

Business owner Josimar Costa, 51 years old, was forced to work remotely after much of the city shut down in March, working from home surrounded by pets and family, and a steady stream of clients.

It was the constant client visits which prompted him to find an alternative to working from home; fearful someone could bring COVID-19 into his apartment and infect his 94-year old father and 7-month-old grandson.

So for a 60% discount, Costa rents a room at the Othon Palace, part of a trend by hotel chains desperate to replace tourist revenue that has plunged because of the pandemic.

Occupancy rates at the Othon Palace fell from 80% at the beginning of March to 1% by the end of the month, as visitors fled the city while future bookings dried up.

According to a study by Hotels Rio, the union representing hospitality workers in the Rio municipality, 70 hotels have shut their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic; some may never reopen according to the study.

The study says the hotel industry has lost 850 million Reais (approx. 151,000,000 US dollars) in the last four months and predicts only about half of all hotels in the city will be operational by the end of next month.

Occupancy rates had plunged from almost 78.4% in January to under 30% now.

However, there was a brief uptick in numbers to nearly 38% occupancy over the weekend when the city announced it was reopening to tourism earlier this month.

For the Rio Othon Palace, and hundreds of other hotels, motels and hospitality venues in Rio, survival is the new normal.

Finding new customers, and keeping the doors open until visitors return to the "Marvellous City" is the new challenge for businesses hit by the pandemic.

(Image Credit Pixabay)