Many boutique hotel properties on university campuses that closed at the onset of the pandemic reopened in summer 2020 and have been bringing in steady business since.

Jeff Brainard, vice president of sales and marketing for Southern Management Companies, said in an email interview that the Hotel at The University of Maryland was closed for most of the second quarter of 2020 and reopened in June.

Southern Management Companies and hotel staff worked closely with the University of Maryland in many aspects of the business, he said.

"While we did not work with them directly in student housing, we did host multiple students throughout the year through an extended-stay program we offered, providing an alternative to apartments and other off-campus housing with greater flexibility based on the uncertainty at the time school started," he said.

Brainard added that the hotel also works with the welcome center at the university.

"Interactions with the team as the campus begins to open for tours is constant so that we are safely and properly supporting our guests and visitors," he said.

As COVID-19 cases go down, more people are vaccinated and restrictions are relaxed, Southern Management Companies is looking to attract meetings business at the Hotel at The University of Maryland and across its portfolio, Brainard said.

The company is offering an EVENT Strong program to promote safe and clean meetings and events, he said.

He said the company also started offering hybrid events in mid-April.

"Our goal is to welcome back in-person meetings and events and provide the support needed to make those happen with a contingent participating remotely as businesses and other organizations grapple with the question of when to meet in person again. Providing a cost-effective but very effective solution, we believe, provides true value to our guests," he said.

The Union Club Hotel at Purdue University, which reopened in August 2020, faced a unique challenge during the pandemc. "In a bubble" on campus, the hotel was allowed only limited outside visitors , Robert R. Stachnik Jr., director of sales and marketing, said via email.

"As vaccines are taking place and events [are] allowed to happen within the community, we are seeing an increase in occupancy," he said.

For the spring semester, the hotel offered a Semester Long Stay program to students who wanted a safe space to live and social distance, he said.

"Fully furnished rooms were offered at a special discount for the spring 2021 and parents or visitors received 20% off rooms as well," he said.

He added that the hotel is owned by the university and works to provide safe options to the community.

When more COVID-19 restrictions were in place and less people were vaccinated, John Schultzel, chief growth officer for The Olympia Companies, said in April that hotels owned by colleges might be the only answer to solving COVID-19-related housing challenges for small campuses in small markets.

"For larger universities, the institution could choose between an owned asset or securing blocks at one of the many privately owned hotels in the area," he said.

The company operates several hotels owned by colleges and universities, and some booked blocks of rooms at their hotels to solve housing challenges and serve as quarantine centers and isolation for sports teams, he said.

One example of this was at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, where the school bought out the Hotel at Oberlin for student housing and used events space as classrooms, he said.