HYDE PARK — The SOPHY Hyde Park hotel, which closed to the public on Friday due to the coronavirus outbreak, will offer 90 rooms to University of Chicago medical staff until at least April 17.
The 98-room boutique hotel at 1411 E. 53rd St., which opened in October 2018, is about a mile from the University of Chicago Medical Center campus.
Doctors, nurses and other medical staff will be able to “rest and restore at SOPHY between shifts,” according to the hotel’s website.
The university will coordinate all reservations, hotel spokesperson Gayle Conran said. A barrier will separate medical workers from hotel staff during the check-in process, and “extreme” cleaning will be performed to prevent the virus’ spread.
There is no other activity in the building, with bookings canceled and the hotel’s restaurant completely shut down, Conran said.
The hotel will offer medical workers “rest, relaxation, a hot shower and a good bed for the night,” she said. “It’s not about mingling; there’s nowhere to do that anyway.”
The rooms will be available until at least April 17, at which point hotel and university officials will consider an extension based on “what the world looks like at that point,” Conran said.
The “very few” visitors presently at the SOPHY will be moved to the nearby Hyatt Place Chicago South hotel in Harper Court, which is owned by the same management company.
“It’s a seamless way to have one hotel in Hyde Park have bookings, with the other be able to support the needs of the university’s medical center,” Conran said.
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