UPDATED, March 21, 12 p.m.: Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami Beach ordered all hotels, motels and short-term rentals shut down effective Monday, March 23, in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Guests and renters must be out of all commercial lodging establishments by midnight on Monday night, according to the city of Miami Beach’s order.
The Miami-Dade order states that hotels and other commercial lodging establishments can accept reservations from the following essential guests: healthcare professionals, first responders, national guard members, law enforcement, state or federal employees, airline crewmembers, patients and their families, journalists and other essential personnel.
“Our hotels have always been the lifeblood of our economy, so shuttering them is not something to do impulsively. But right now, as painful as it may be, the reality is we just cannot be a tourist destination,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a release.
The closure applies to hotels, motels, apartment-hotels, hostels, dormitories, and vacation and short-term rentals in Miami-Dade County. That includes flagship Miami Beach hotels such as the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, 1 Hotel South Beach and the Eden Roc. Hotel owners in Miami-Dade have already begun laying off employees as business dropped off.
Miami Beach also established a curfew from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. effective Tuesday.
Hotels such as Acqualina Resort in Sunny Isles Beach and the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables had begun to close ahead of the official announcement.
Late Thursday, Monroe County ordered all hotels, guest houses, vacation rentals and short-term rentals in RV parks to close on Sunday for a period of two weeks.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued an executive order on Thursday shutting down all non-essential businesses, including restaurant dining rooms, malls, retail stores, casinos, gyms, and even public parks and beaches. Hotels were excluded from the Miami-Dade order, however, and were allowed to remain open, until now.
This story has been updated to include exceptions to the county’s order.