Babish Patel has been in the hotel business for decades.

So he's seen a lot of upheaval from 9-11 to the great recession.

And none of it has compared to this moment right now.

I think the pasture is the worst we've ever seen it.

Patel's family business owns seven franchise hotels, like Hampton Inn or Comfort Inn.

They're in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Illinois.

With COVID, basically most of our properties are either running like a between a 10 or 15% occupancy.

In a normal year, I know 100% occupancy is not normal.

What is typical for you?

So for us, we can range anywhere from 60 to about 75, 80% occupancy.

And now you're looking at 10 to 15%.

Now we're looking at 10 to 15%.

As a sane business, he has cut as deep as he can.

Some hotels only have one person working at a time since there are hardly any guests.

He's furloughed some employees and laid off others.

People who've worked for him for ages.

It really hurt me because you get to know these employees.

They're like family to you.

And you're their livelihood, too.

You're putting food on the table.

You know some of the kids.

And yeah, it was hard.

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