Dallas City Wire

Until last week Omar Mir was a accounts receivable specialist at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott in Irving. Overnight Mir, who has a a pregnant wife at home, has found himself to be just one of the thousands of associates furloughed from their jobs at a nationwide hospitality chain due to the COVID-19 crisis.

"To highlight the serious impact of layoffs and economic restrictions in the recent days allow me to share with you Omar's story," Lucy Ledezma, regional director and HR business partner with Remington Hotels, which manages the Marriott property, said. "Omar Mir is soon to be a first time father to his unborn son, Rakan, within the next couple of weeks."

Mir's wife arrived from Pakistan in December.

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott.

"Now with no income to provide for his family, that will only make things more difficult," Ledezma said.

Mir is one of many suffering because of the affect COVID-19 has had on the hotel industry. 

"Remington Hotels is struggling in the face of the coronavirus," Remington Hotels President and CEO Sloan Dean III said in a statement to Dallas City Wire.

Dean's appointment as president and CEO of Remington Hotels was announced in December.

Remington, founded in 1968, is a hotel management company that also provides providing property management services. Its hospitality wing manages 86 hotels in 26 states across 17 brands.

The suffering of Remington Hotels' employees is a small portion of the larger story about how COVID-19 threatens the world's economy. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned earlier this week that COVID-19 could drive unemployment in the U.S. to 20%, levels not seen since the Great Depression.

Remington Hotels has been hit hard by COVID-19, which has sunk its business to "beyond depression levels" and Remington anticipates losses this year in the hundreds of millions, Dean said.

Remington Hotels expects hotels that it manages to run at 90% lower occupancy levels in April 2020, compared to the same month last year, Dean said.

"Most all of our 6,800 associates are furloughed," he said, adding that the entire situation is a "disaster."

Mir is only one of those furloughed associates.

"He will struggle financially for the next few months or who knows even longer to provide for his family," Ledezma said. "It will definitely be very difficult during this time. Omar and his family will not be the only ones suffering, but others as well in our company."

Dean said assistance will need to come from the nation's top leadership.

Priorities for the entire industry were presented to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 17 by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Those priorities are emergency assistance for employees, a workforce stabilization fund from the U.S. Treasury Department, preservation of business liquidity that would include $100 billion for employee retention and rehiring, and tax relief

"For many Americans in our sector, this health crisis will be compounded by economic hardship in the coming weeks and months," Dean said. "Congress must act now!! Time is essential as unemployment claims in hospitality will be in the millions."