Bisnow's podcast, Make Yourself At Home, hears from members of the commercial real estate industry about how they are managing this new reality and gaining insight into their day-to-day approaches. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music.

On this episode, we’re talking hotels and hospitality with Vijay Dandapani, the CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City. He said the industry is “devastated” by the crisis — about 200 hotels are closed right now — and some of those won’t ever open again.

However, he remains optimistic about a return of tourism, though he said the city’s quarantine requirements for out-of-state travelers remains the biggest impediment to its short-term recovery.

“Until we get vaccinations that bring us to herd immunity, the three-day quarantine is definitely a limiting factor,” he said, adding the association has encouraged government to consider the “Caribbean position” in reopening the city. 


“Aruba had a PCR test and if it’s negative, you are free to go anywhere on the island … Those ideas we put forward, and to be fair, the governor’s office did respond and lowered the number of days required to quarantine, but it’s something we want to keep looking at.”

CORRECTION, FEB. 19, 5:30 P.M. ET: Vijay Dandapani is the CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City. An earlier version of this story misstated his title.

CORRECTION, FEB. 20, 1:30 P.M. ET: Vijay Dandapani is the CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City. An earlier version of this story misspelled his name.