Are you in a state that is opening back up in coming days and weeks? North Carolina? Florida? Tennessee? I am in Iowa right now, where the calls to increase— not reduce—social distancing are growing as COVID-19 cases are still rising. We have mixed policy across the country, and a lot of impassioned podium-pundits are making tough decisions around what is best for the economy in tandem with our health and safety.
Really though, it comes back to us. What we do as individual businesses and community members to model new COVID-19 principles and practices will ultimately balance our local economies with community health. We women can lead on this and some of us already are.
One industry hit early and hit hard, has been the hotel and lodging sector. In early April, hotel occupancy was down a whopping 80%. The American Hotel and Lodging Association predicts it is possible that half of American hotels could go under in the coming year. For small operators I would think the numbers could be even worse.
Enter Angela Harrington.
I met Angela in 2013 when she was an intrapreneurial chamber of commerce director. I remember thinking it was only a matter of time before she would likely join those she served at the chamber.
In 2014, Angela launched Catalyst Development, a novel property redevelopment company. She purchased and renovated a 1921 junior high building into one of the country’s most amazing boutique hotels.
Hotel Grinnell is an experience like no other. Check out the pictures on her website at www.hotelgrinnell.com We held our very first #RosieWasRight weekend retreat there in 2018.
Enter COVID-19.
If you do an environmental scan of Angela’s situation in this pandemic, it isn’t pretty. Hotel Grinnell is located in a rural Midwestern community in Iowa. Don’t get me wrong Iowa is cool —but Iowa is small and Grinnell, population 9,300 is even smaller. Her business is highly dependent upon the lovely and affluent Grinnell College, now paused, perhaps until fall or later.
On the other side of the ledger, Hotel Grinnell is just off the iconic Interstate 80, within driving distance of the capital city (about 40 minutes). I have to believe that less population density could also be an asset right now (think crowded subways in NYC). But how to make the Hotel Grinnell experience safe?
Angela walked through her guest’s experiences from arrival to departure and reconfigured all of it for COVID-19. She introduced remote check-in and check-out with a comfortable number of staff available on site by text, phone or email 24/7. Sanitized rooms, personal room-favors (you know, like party-favors, but for a hotel room in a pandemic) including hand sanitizer and custom face masks. She offers daily food delivery from any of the amazing (and they are amazing) restaurants in the community.
Angela added portable bars (including the recipes!) for in-room bar tending, and her signature fat-tire, vintage bicycles outside your door to explore the trail system; an authentic quarantine benefit to living in a rural place. You can go several miles on trails without seeing very many people- but you will see woodpeckers, lots of woodpeckers. Downies, Red-Bellied and sometimes a Pileated. Yes, I like woodpeckers.
Finally, perhaps most importantly, if you need a new hide-out spot (yes, you there in Michigan, Florida, Louisiana and NYC) she’s got you safely pampered at the Hotel Grinnell for about $450 a week, including your dog. Amazing. This approach may get the Hotel Grinnell through this crisis and also serve as a glimpse of what is to come as we Renew, Re-imagine and Re-build our businesses and communities in 2020. Bravo Angela and all the other small companies out there taking the initiative in these uncertain times.
We host a small group of women-owned business having these and similar conversations at #RosieWasRight You can get there from www.mocollins.com If you are an economic developer in my circle, I hope you will share this free resource with the women in business in your life. If you are a woman-owned business, I hope you will join us.
