Jackson hotels take hit, lay off employees due to coronavirus

JACKSON, Tenn. — “I’ve said it a hundred times: It’s hard to be in a business about people when there is no people,” Amanda Brumbelow said.

Brumbelow is the general manager at the Holiday Inn Express in northeast Jackson. The hotel is in view of the West Tennessee Healthcare Sportsplex and right off Interstate 40. She said this time of year, they’re typically booked.

“We’re not empty, but there’s a lot less foot traffic, fewer people coming to the desk,” Brumbelow said, “They’re just kind of out the door to their room, without having breakfast, there is less people down here.”

Jackson has 46 hotels and about 2,900 hotel rooms. Right now, only 10 percent to 15 percent of them are booked.

“We’ve had growth in the hotel industry over the last 19 consecutive months, so with the pandemic coming on, this was quite an unexpected change to the path we were on,” said Lori Nunnery, Executive Director of Visit Jackson, TN.

Nunnery said that sudden change is leading to cut hours and layoffs for some employees.

“Today, I’m over housekeeping, I’m working the front desk. That’s not unusual for me as GM,” Brumbelow said. “My laundry attendant will also be my house person, cleaning the public spaces, or my maintenance guy pulls trash on the days I don’t have a house man. It’s just kind of, we’re all hands on deck, and we’re all helping where we’re needed. There’s no more job titles.”

But the impact from this will also show financially for the city and county.

“People may not understand that it’s not only the hotel-motel tax collections and payroll, and everything for the hotels, but it’s the ripple effect,” Nunnery said. “Sales tax numbers also, where our community will take a great hit.”

Nunnery said there could be a two-month lag on tax numbers, so we could see the drop from hotel-motel and sales taxes as early as June.