Merilee Karr, chair of the UK Short-Term Accommodation Association [STAA] and CEO of UnderTheDoormat talks to us about how the short term rental industry has been devastatingly affected by the Covid-19 crisis. She shares how her company has navigated the last few weeks since the bookings began to drop off and Online Travel Agents began refunding thousands of pounds of allocated bookings. We look at what she has put in place to weather the storm and practical plans to keep the business afloat. With the prospect of hundreds of properties sat empty and seeing the opportunity to provide urgent accommodation to key NHS workers, Merilee launched the 'NHS Homes scheme' to provide free accommodation to NHS Staff needing a c a comfortable home to stay in to reduce their commute time and to minimise the risk of taking the virus back to the family home.

Recorded 28th April 2020 - please note that there is some loss of audio connection in the beginning but we hope it won't distract from this timely and useful content.

(The accompanying article will be published in the June issue of YPN, not May as mentioned at the end of this episode.)

NHS Homes scheme

https://www.nhshomes.co.uk/

STAA

https://www.ukstaa.org/

UnderTheDoormat

https://underthedoormat.com/

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