Marriott International Inc., the world’s largest hotel company with nearly 1.4 million rooms world-wide, said that it is starting to furlough what it expects will be tens of thousands of employees as it ramps up hotel closings across the globe, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company began shutting down some of its managed properties last week, a Marriott spokeswoman said. The employees at these properties won’t be paid while on furlough but the bulk will continue to receive health-care benefits that are ultimately paid by the hotel owner, she added, which for the vast majority of the brand’s properties isn’t Marriott. Marriott is also trimming staff through furloughs at properties that are still operating. The staff reductions include everyone from general managers to housekeepers. The Marriott spokeswoman said that there has been no layoffs or furloughs at the corporate level but those are “under discussion.” Marriott said it expected to bring back as many of the furloughed employees as possible when the novel coronavirus is contained and business returns. In the U.S., about 130,000 employees are on the Marriott payroll, the company said.
