How a Luxury Hotel on Billionaires’ Row Became a Dorm for Hospital Workers
/Just a few weeks ago, it was typical for personal assistants to make reservations for thousand-dollar rooms at the Four Seasons Hotel New York for their high-profile bosses.
Remnants of the hotel’s luxurious past — the Art Deco-inspired entrance, the onyx ceiling in the main lobby, the oversize soaking tubs in the suites — are extravagant extras now that the five-star property has been converted into something akin to a military barracks.
The Four Seasons, just like nearby Central Park and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens, is yet another New York City landmark being retrofitted to fight the pandemic.
Although other hotels in the city are helping with hospital bed overflow, the Four Seasons has dedicated itself exclusively to keeping doctors, nurses and other medical professionals well rested and safe
At the entrance, two nurses, wearing N95 masks, take the temperatures of all guests, asking questions about symptoms over the past 72 hours and if they’ve washed their hands. Once inside, guests go straight to their rooms; there is no bar or restaurant. Elevators carry one passenger at a time; others must wait on taped Xs on the floor, placed six feet apart.
Of the hotel’s 368 rooms, only 225 will have guests to limit crowding on the property.
Guests and hotel staff no longer interact. For check-in, keys are placed in envelopes on a table
Dirty items are collected only after guests, who stay for a minimum of seven days, check out and the room has been fumigated