America’s super-rich flee coronavirus threat in US cities, buy out secluded hotels for up to US$38,000 a day

Wealthy people are buying out entire hotels as they flee major cities for more secluded suburban areas, CNN Travel reports.

Renting out suites, hotels, and holiday homes in remote areas is the latest way wealthy people are trying to skirt the threat of the coronavirus.

Billionaires are chartering superyachts to escape from the outbreak (though not without backlash), while private plane use has seen a spike even as commercial air travel tumbles.

Some wealthy people have started renting hotel rooms, inn lodgings, and resort suits, as they flee major cities to less densely populated areas, CNN Travel reports. But the even more affluent are taking it a step further and reserving entire properties for themselves.

Blantyre Country Resort, a luxury country house hotel in the Berkshires that typically opens in May, is making itself available now to those seeking to reserve the entire property for a small group or a single family. The cost of a buyout? US$38,000 a day.

“Even though we are in the midst of our annual winter closure, we received several calls from many of our loyal guests asking if we would consider reopening for a buyout,” general manager Stephen Benson told CNN Travel. “There is a desire more than ever to want to be transported away from it all with family and loved ones, and reserving our gilded-age mansion is a way to do this.”