Red Lion in Missoula Closes Temporarily Due To COVID-19
We've had a few businesses in Missoula that have had to temporarily shut their doors after an employee or a customer tested positive for COVID-19... and now, we can add another one to the list.
Although this one is slightly different, because before we were mostly hearing about restaurants or breweries - this time, we've got a hotel. Red Lion Inn & Suites closed over the weekend, and are currently waiting on the test results for one of their employees before they can safely reopen.
A hotel has got to be one of the harder things to run while a pandemic is going on - people visiting from all over the place, different people going in and out of rooms, a full cleaning staff on hand... I can imagine it's rough on the owners. A sign has been put up at the front door of Red Lion Inn which reads "Red Lion Inn & Suites is CLOSED by order of the Missoula City-County Health Department."
Hopefully, we'll find out soon when Red Lion will be able to reopen its doors, though I imagine business these days isn't as strong as it normally is - people are doing less traveling, which means they're not spending much time at hotels. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even feel comfortable staying in a hotel just yet, even with new sanitation procedures in place - just not knowing where people have been and whether they slept in the same room as me is enough to keep me at a bit of a distance for a while.