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Guest column: Losing hotels to WPI means city – and workers – lose

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3 months ago

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Guest column: Losing hotels to WPI means city – and workers – lose

Robert Vigeant
 |  Worcester Telegram & Gazette

For the past three years, I have been a part-time bartender at the Courtyard Worcester.

As a result, I have met so many people from all over the country and all over the world. For various reasons, they come to Worcester for work, play, to use our hospitals, visit friends and family, see a concert or visit one of the many colleges in Worcester.

While using the hotel as a base, they want to get out and explore the Worcester area, eat in our restaurants, drink in our bars, shop in our stores and see what Worcester has to offer. This all means money being spent in our city. Losing these hotels would mean a lot of lost revenue for the city and its businesses. A lot 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 seen the growth in travel back to our city. For example, our hotel has been at or near 100% capacity for the entire summer. Where will these travelers stay? Auburn, Marlboro, Westborough?

A 25% reduction in hotel room capacity will cripple our Worcester economy and send these visitors to nearby areas. With the closure of many of our restaurants and bars over the past year, our businesses need more patrons, not less.

It is perplexing to me that WPI would want these hotels to be used as dorms. Many of the students’ parents stay at the Courtyard when they come to visit their sons and daughters and often share with me that they love the convenience of having hotels so close to WPI.

Throughout the year, we have many groups, conference attendees and outside sports groups that also use the facilities at WPI and stay at our hotel because it is so close to WPI. The potential acquisition of these hotels would force all of these patrons to bring their business somewhere else. Losing these hotels will also hurt all the other colleges in Worcester, which also bring thousands of people to Worcester on a yearly basis.

Lastly, I bring to your attention the loss of jobs that these acquisitions would create.

During my time at the Courtyard, I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of hardworking people. Most of them come from all over the world to work and raise their families in Worcester. To survive in this city, most need to work multiple jobs to support themselves.

They are the housekeepers, maintenance workers, cooks, laundry attendants and front-desk operators. The majority of them speak little or no English. Where will they find similar work?

Many of them do not own their own cars; they use public transportation to get to and from work. How will they make up for the lost revenue this job provides for them? It is not just the loss of 100 jobs. It is 100 good, hardworking people with names, faces and families that will be displaced if the sale of these hotels is allowed to proceed.

Robert Vigeant has been a teacher for over 30 years and is social studies department chair at Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury. He is also a part-time bartender at the Courtyard Worcester.

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