London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 19, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
×