For the past three years I have worked part-time as a bartender at the Courtyard Worcester.
Through this, I have met so many people from all over the country and the world who come to Worcester for a variety of reasons, to work, to play, to use our hospitals, to visit friends and family, to attend a concert or to attend one of the many colleges in Worcester.
While they use the hotel as a home base, they want to explore the Worcester area, eat at our restaurants, drink at our bars, shop at our stores and see what Worcester has to offer. All of this means money is being spent in our city. Losing these hotels would mean a major loss of revenue for the city and its businesses. Far more than the $780,000 in property taxes and $850,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue.
Since the end of the COVID emergency, I have personally witnessed more travelers returning to our city. For example, our hotel was at 100% or near 100% capacity all summer. Where will these travelers stay? In Auburn, Marlboro, Westborough?
A 25% reduction in hotel room capacity will cripple our Worcester economy and drive those visitors to surrounding areas. With many of our restaurants and bars closed over the past year, our businesses need more guests, not fewer.
It is a mystery to me why WPI would want to use these hotels as dorms. Many of the students’ parents stay at the Courtyard when visiting their sons and daughters and often tell me how convenient it is to have hotels so close to WPI.
Throughout the year, many groups, conference attendees and outside sports groups use WPI’s facilities and stay at our hotel because it is so close to WPI. The potential acquisition of these hotels would force all of these guests to conduct their business elsewhere. The loss of these hotels would also hurt all of the other colleges in Worcester that also bring thousands of people to Worcester annually.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that these takeovers would lead to job losses.
During my time at the Courtyard, I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of hard-working individuals. Most of them come from all over the world to work and raise their families in Worcester. To survive in this city, most of them must work multiple jobs to support themselves.
They are housekeepers, maintenance workers, cooks, laundresses and receptionists. Most of them speak little or no English. Where can they find similar work?
Many of them don’t own their own cars and use public transport to get to and from work. How are they going to make up for the loss of income that comes with this job? It’s not just about the loss of 100 jobs. It’s about 100 good, hard-working people with names, faces and families who will lose their jobs if the sale of these hotels is allowed.
Robert Vigeant has been a teacher for over 30 years and is the head of the Social Sciences Department at Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury. He also works part-time as a bartender at the Courtyard Worcester.
