People will begin traveling again as more of the public is vaccinated for COVID-19 and consumer confidence returns, and Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said that is why hotels should help accelerate this process by serving as vaccination sites.

There are 55,000 hotels across the United States open 24/7 that are located in population centers that have good transportation access and cleaning standards comparable to a hospital, which makes them "perfectly situated" to be vaccination sites, he said.

"You've got open space — conference centers that are not being used, convention centers that are not being used, hotels rooms that could house medical personnel. You've got ample parking. So when you compare what a hotel might be able to offer compared to a small pharmacy or a medical facility that already has too much demand being placed on it, big hotels are in a really good position to help out with this," he said.

The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Boston North Shore in Danvers, Massachusetts, has been serving as a mass vaccination center in its state, said Kevin Varr, general manager at the hotel.

Scouts from the state looking in strategic areas for vaccination sites, along with chiefs of police and health authorities, determined the hotel to be in an ideal spot, he said.

The hotel is unique because it sits on the town line between Danvers, Massachusetts, and Middleton, Massachusetts, he said.

"Part of our hotel is in one town and the other part is in the other," he said.

Varr said a company has been hired to handle day-to-day logistics of administering the vaccine, and the hotel staff has been supporting that company’s team.

The company did COVID-19 testing at the Springfield Mall before it started giving vaccinations, and there were challenges with having tables and chairs and “all that stuff a hotel can provide at a moment’s notice because we have it in our banquet storage,” he said.

“When [the company administering the vaccine] started working with us, they realized how great of a relationship this could be because we were able to provide guestroom accommodations for their staff [and] for their executives who were coming back and forth to set things up," he said.

The hotel also serves lunch to the vaccination company's staff on property seven days a week, Varr said.

“We’ve been able to support them in a lot of ways at first they didn’t think we could actually help with,” he said.

Hotels are high-profile assets within their communities and should do what they can for the cities they are in, which is why Real Hospitality Group has started reaching out to leaders at its properties to float the idea of offering the hotels as vaccination sites, President and CEO Ben Seidel said.

The company currently doesn't have any hotels serving as vaccination sites, but its general managers in the Maryland area are interested in pursuing the idea, he said.

Working with legislators on Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic was the first time the hotel industry has gotten those legislators to understand that many hotels are small businesses owned by individuals and small corporations that are community-based, Seidel said.

Serving as vaccination sites could be another great way for hoteliers to step up in their communities, especially during a time when "everybody is in need, both economically and health-wise," he said.

While the DoubleTree by Hilton Boston North Shore was in a unique situation in which it was designated by the state to serve as a vaccination site, Varr said hoteliers who are interested in having their hotels serve as vaccination sites should get in touch with their local or state health departments.

Local and state health departments have different requirements for vaccination sites, but hotels that have ample space and parking are in a good position to help, he said.

“We’re very fortunate here because we have a 10,000-square-foot ballroom that has its own parking area, its own entrances, so it gives the operator of the vaccine site their own separate operation without impacting the hotel," he said.

“This is considered a mass vaccination site. When [the vaccination company] is fully ramped up, they can handle 2,500 to 3,000 doses of the vaccine per day here. Depending on the jurisdiction and the state and what they are looking for at each individual site as far as how many people would show up ... space, parking and the ability to keep people out of the elements are key.”

Rogers said interested hoteliers can get in contact with AHLA as turning hotels into vaccination sites is part of the organization's Hospitality for Hope program.

"What we're doing now is working with both the federal government and individual state governments who have expressed interest in using hotels as these sites," he said. "AHLA's real role in this is connecting hotels with the government agencies that need them."