Following months of collaboration with the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and hotel owners across the U.S., the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility guidelines.
The update clarifies that hotel owners who utilized third-party management companies and participated in PPP are eligible for PPP loan forgiveness for payroll expenses they paid via a management company.
The changes will ensure that hotels facing improper loan forgiveness denials will now have their cases properly adjudicated and protect those whose loans have already been forgiven.
“AHLA heard from numerous hoteliers who were being denied PPP loan forgiveness due to their use of the common owner/management company operational model,” said Chip Rogers, president/CEO, AHLA. “This ran counter to the stated purpose of the program and put the bulk of hotel-related PPP loan forgiveness at risk. We are proud of the crucial work AHLA’s government affairs team did in advocating for SBA and Congress to correct this issue, and we applaud the Biden administration for making this important update to the program’s guidelines.”
The PPP was crucial to the hotel industry’s survival during the depths of the pandemic. AHLA successfully advocated during the program’s rollout for a number of provisions to ensure eligibility for the vast majority of the hotel industry. These included affiliation rule waivers and an evaluation of employee counts on a per-property basis for qualification purposes.
