Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

This New York hotel quarantined the sick. Now the owners regret it.

This New York hotel quarantined the sick. Now the owners regret it.

Owners say one guest canceled booking after finding out COVID-19 patients stayed in the property

When the pandemic erupted last spring, the husband-and-wife owners of an upstate New York hotel felt compelled to offer the 43-room property to Monroe County authorities for use as a quarantine facility.

Silas Patel and his wife, Micky Patel, both previously worked in the healthcare industry, and they were eager to provide shelter at their Clarion Pointe hotel for people who had COVID-19, or had been exposed to the coronavirus. The couple also said it brought in some revenue when the rest of their lodging business had evaporated.

More than 15,000 hotels across the U.S. offered to provide temporary housing for emergency and healthcare workers, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, though it isn’t clear how many actually served in this capacity. Many hotels didn’t publicize that their properties served people in quarantine. On hotel booking websites and their own property websites, they simply said no rooms are available.

Experiences have varied widely after government contracts expired and owners resumed more normal hotel operations. But the Patels have had a good deal of trouble with the Rochester property since reopening it this month.

They said at least one guest canceled a booking after realizing the property was once a "COVID hotel," and say it is impossible to know how many others are staying away because of the stigma. Occupancy has been around 20% since the start of April, the Patels said, well off the 69% occupancy rate in April 2019. It is also below the national average of 59.7% for the week ending April 10, according to lodging data firm STR.

Mr. Patel understands why guests would be hesitant to stay if they thought there was any lingering health risk. He spent $6,000 out of his own pocket and weeks cleaning the rooms, vents and furniture, and repolishing the floors. He stayed in many of the rooms before reopening to ensure that everything was in working order.

"You want guests to feel safe here," Mr. Patel said.

Yet the 44-year-old hotelier can’t help but wonder if he is paying too high a price for helping his community during a time of need. The county paid the owners a bit more than $450,000 to take over the property for the 11-month period, he said, though that covered only the costs of operation.

Upon returning to the property in February, Mr. Patel found busted microwaves and refrigerators piled high in a dumpster at the back of the hotel. There was much more wear and tear in the rooms, too, because patients spent many more hours there than a typical guest.

A Monroe County spokeswoman said the county fully complied with all the terms of the lease that was negotiated with the hotel, including with respect to cleaning.

Mr. Patel and his wife now plan to sell the property. "I don’t think they showed us the same courtesy as we did to them," he said.

With COVID-19 infection rates down nationally since January, vaccinations rising and millions of stimulus checks deposited in bank accounts, more Americans are itching to get out and travel again.

The Rochester hotel might be struggling more than most. That is in part because most owners continue operating their hotel when they take on government contracts during disaster relief or to house the homeless, lawyers said. Often, these agreements involve leasing a number of rooms with some services at a discounted rate.

In New York City, there are more than 130 commercial hotels used as shelters, including 67 locations that house around 10,000 individuals relocated from congregate shelters at the height of the pandemic, according to the Department of Social Services.

"It’s impractical for the government to step into the shoes of an operator and take over an asset such as a hotel," said Yariv C. Ben-Ari, a partner in the real estate department at Herrick Feinstein LLP, who advises hotel owners.

County officials didn’t respond to a request for comment on the question of operation.

Mr. Patel, who was born in London and moved to the U.S. as a child, spent more than a decade working in healthcare finance and policy. His wife was a registered nurse. In 2018, they purchased the Clarion Pointe hotel, which is about 9 miles from Lake Ontario, and renovated it the following year.

The county said it followed the guidelines set by the New York State Department of Health for cleaning and disinfecting areas housing individuals under movement restrictions, according to emails sent to the Patels and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Patel said he is grateful that he didn’t lose the property to foreclosure, but even with the revenue from the county, he is financially strapped. The lease payments from the county started off near $80,000 a month in April 2020, were nearly cut in half in June, and then roughly cut in half again in September.

The total wasn’t enough to dig the Patels out of their financial hole. After a grace period of three months, lenders and vendors have imposed late fees after they missed payments, Mr. Patel said. Mr. Patel said his insurer also dropped coverage after late payments and because it was unsure how to insure a building housing COVID-19 patients.

"We were committed to this," said Mrs. Patel. "But frustration built up over time."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×