Indian American hoteliers provide free accommodation to stranded Indian students in US

International students are caught in a bind as college campuses close down.

ASAM NEWS

Indian American hoteliers came to the rescue for stranded Indian students in the US with no place to stay, after the implementation of lockdown measures because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic, Indian students have been ordered to vacate their hostels and dormitories. As India banned international flights for a week from March 22nd, approximately 250,000 Indian students had no where to go.

“You spend four years at a university, and you work incredibly hard and expect that at the end you can tie a bow on it and wrap it up,” Isabella Kwasnik, a senior at Harvard told The New York Times. 

“But there’s this unexpected outcome,” she said. “It’s just a logistical and emotional nightmare.”To ensure safe security for these students, the Indian Embassy pledged to take appropriate measures last week. According to AP Herald, the Indian Embassy has been running a round-the-clock helpline for students in the U.S. and calling hotels nation-wide for help.

Soon after, Indian American hoteliers offered more than 6,000 rooms in nearly 700 hotels for free. In some cases, hoteliers even provided free food.

The Indian Consulate in New York was one of the first to participate.

Working side by side with Hammock Worldwide Hotels and Resorts, the Indian Consulate in New York provided temporary accommodation for students at a flat rate of $50 per night. But according to Live Mint, once hotels started to offer free rooms and free meals, everyone agreed to join in.

Kalpesh Joshi, a regional director of Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), upper Midwest region was one of them. In an interview with Economic Times, Joshi explained how he and other Indian American hoteliers decided to help because “the students were in trouble and had no place to go.” Joshi continued by saying, “as members of the Indian community we all feel it’s our responsibility to help.”

Florida based Vipul Patel, the national president of Asian American Store Owners Association also said the Indian American community truly united together. Patel told Times Now News that he never came across any hotel owner who said “no” to helping these Indian students.


Rooms would be allocated to students on the recommendation of the Indian Embassy and its consulates in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and New York.