How one Myrtle Beach hotel operator is sharing a 15-story inspirational message
South Bay Inn & Suites would normally have more than 100 employees this time of year.
But the downtown Myrtle Beach hotel has a skeleton crew of just six employees amid the coronavirus outbreak and government mandates to slow its spread.
Resort manager Rob Dowd knows the struggles his laid-off employees and other Grand Strand residents are experiencing, and he has found a way to share an inspirational message.
Dowd has spelled out the word “HOPE” over three of the past four nights on his oceanfront building by lighting up specific rooms facing the beach.
The building was lit up Friday and Saturday before Dowd cut the power to his hotel Sunday in anticipation of strong storms overnight and Monday morning, and HOPE returned Monday night. He plans to leave that message for at least a few days, and may switch up the message to “LOVE” or other short words in the coming days.
“It’s probably something we’ll keep up for a little while,” Dowd said.
Dowd said he saw on Facebook hotels in other areas spelling out messages or displaying figures such as a heart in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. “I just thought maybe I could embellish on that a little bit and put something up,” Dowd said. “I know everybody has been hit kind of rough in this area with everybody being out of work, so I thought we could all use a little bit of hope.”
Dowd has used a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to determine what rooms need to be lighted, then turns them on himself. HOPE consisted of 115 of his 242 rooms on 15 floors and took about 2 ½ hours to light.
“Go big or go home, right?” Dowd said. “It was easier than a lot of people think. It was just time-consuming.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 7:42 AM.
