COVID-19 Shuts Down Lower East Side Hotels

The PUBLIC Hotel, Bowery Hotel and Ludlow Hotel are all in shutdown mode. Visit the PUBLIC Hotel’s website and you’re greeted with this message, “The hotel is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are currently taking reservations from May 1. We look forward to welcoming you very soon. Please call (212) 735-6000 for all inquiries.”

In a Monday night heartfelt note to the hotel’s email list, Ian Schrager the hospitality king wrote,

“It is with a heavy heart that I have finally decided to temporarily close PUBLIC on Monday, March 23rd. Of course, we will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. This has been an agonizing decision for me and one of the hardest things I have had to do in my entire career. Not only because it is against everything I personally believe in, but because staying open to serve our guests is in our DNA and what we live for.”

“Closing is the only ethical, moral and humane thing to do in order to contain this illness and protect everybody. After all, we have always considered PUBLIC the ‘People’s Hotel’, and we mean it.”