Wealthy elite throughout the United States are taking their families from urban cities and jetting off to more secluded locations, with some even stowing away in entire floors of hotel rooms.
Several hotel and inns across the country are offering unique packages for families willing to spend top dollar in order to keep their loved ones safe during the pandemic.
Some, like Cape Arundel Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine, are even providing takeovers.
Some hotels and rental properties, like Cape Arundel Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine, are providing takeovers for their estates
‘This is a new offering we’re implementing for the month of April. We have seen so many of the seasonal summer homes in the area become a respite for folks who live in highly populated urban areas since the virus hit,’ hotel managing director, Justin Grimes, explained to CNN.
‘We wanted to help offer additional accommodation options for those trying to distance themselves from dense, multifamily urban settings.’
With 14 bedrooms and a lush ocean view, the upscale hotel has a $19,500 weekly rental rate. Included in the rental in weekly housekeeping, access to bicycles and access to a clubhouse lounge that has a billiards tables and provides meals.
Numerous protocol have been put in place by the managing director to ensure that guests and staff are safe during the time. Grimes has made it so that all check-ins are conducted virtually through phone and email. Welcome packets are left for guests once they arrive.
Meals are prepped in advanced and left at designated times for families to enjoy family-style. Staff clean up after families once they have left the area.
Guests also have the option to have food delivered to their room using single-use packaging that is left outside of their doors.
Lyon Porter, owner of the Urban Cowboy Catskills in upstate New York, said the location has been ‘wildly inundated wit requests’ from potential clients but added that he was following government directives and staying temporarily closed.
Lyon Porter, owner of the Urban Cowboy Catskills in upstate New York, said the location has been ‘wildly inundated wit requests’
Porter is following government directives and staying temporarily closed
Other smaller property owners, however, are being a little more lenient with what they are allowing.
The Williamson Estates in the Finger Lakes region of New York State is waiting to be rented. The estate functions like a whole home rental and is available through VRBO for $800 a night.
It sits on five acres of lands and has five bedrooms. The estate is close to the up-and-coming wine region in the Finger Lakes. It is currently empty for books.
Carleen Frost, Manager of Williamson Estates, described the estate as a ‘hidden gem on Lake Ontario.’ She speculated that many guest fly in via private jet from New York City.
According to data from Guesty, a property management software that rental platforms use to manage short-term rentals, isolated home rentals have seen an increase in the United States.
Second home owners are retreating to their second or third properties. The rich have been retreating to homes in South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, where properties start at $500,000 and can go up to $20million
Omer Rabin, the company’s managing director for the Americas, said that reservations in more remote areas have still been consistent while overall reservations have dropped between 50 and 60 per cent a week since mid-March.
‘Most of the areas where people are reserving are near major cities,’ he added. The Hudson Valley, Catskills, Sonoma, Napa and rural spots near Denver are popular locales.
Rabin also noted that ‘instead of staying a week, they’re (guests) reserving for two or three weeks. We’ve even seen two months.’
Second home owners are retreating to their second or third properties. The rich have been retreating to homes in South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, where properties start at $500,000 and can go up to $20million.
Increased travel to the area from outside the state has led South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s executive order on March 14 ordering people to self quarantine for 14 days if they had come from New York, New Jersy, Connecticut and New Orleans, Louisiana
The leaders of four beachside Hampton communities wrote to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Friday urging him to take action and ban residents coming to the East End
Increased travel to the area from outside the state has led South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s executive order on March 14 ordering people to self quarantine for 14 days if they had come from New York, New Jersy, Connecticut and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Amenities at the Kiawah Island Club have been closed in response to coronavirus but owners can still golf and get to-go food.
Government leaders from these isolated communities are banding together in trying to prevent these folks from the city from coming to their towns.
The leaders of four beachside Hampton communities wrote to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Friday urging him to take action and ban residents coming to the East End, after locals have complained of overcrowded beaches and grocery store supplies being depleted by the escapees.
Locals have complained of overcrowded beaches and grocery store supplies being depleted by the escapees.
Residents are also calling for anyone who has recently arrived from the city to be ordered to quarantine for 14 days.
Concerns are ramping up that New Yorkers looking to escape the pandemic in their home towns could actually be spreading the pandemic to the rural areas, after warnings issued by Dr. Deborah Birx, of the White House coronavirus response team.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the New Yorkers are putting local Hamptons residents at risk.
‘A new trend is taking place that puts our residents at further risk — people seeking refuge from the metropolitan areas. It is simple math: the more people that come, the greater the spread and the greater the confirmed case,’ he said.
Celebrities including Alec Baldwin have been holing up in the beachside towns, which become popular havens from the rat race of the city over the summer
Southampton Town supervisor Jay Schneiderman said that local residents are worried there will be an outbreak due to the influx of people and that the area’s three hospitals won’t be able to cope.
Celebrities including Alec Baldwin have been holing up in the beachside towns, which become popular havens from the rat race of the city over the summer.
Julie Macklowe has also been taking to social media to document her Hamptons hideaway from the pandemic.
The beauty entrepreneur and socialite posted snaps of her packing up boxes including whiskey to take to her retreat.
One snap showed Amazon boxes and a plastic box filled with medicines and health remedies.
The Hamptons isn’t the only area where residents want to see the back of New Yorkers during the pandemic.
Rhode Island is planning to send the National Guard to hunt down any New Yorkers who have fled to the state.
Governor Gina Raimondo said the National Guard will be deployed to knock door-to-door looking for anyone who has evacuated the coronavirus-stricken state and arrived in Rhode Island.