Hyde Park hotel offers U of C medical staff free rooms to aid in coronavirus fight

A boutique hotel in Hyde Park closed its doors to the general public Friday and opened them to University of Chicago Medical Center staff battling the coronavirus — free of charge.

The Sophy Hyde Park will offer up 90 of its 98 rooms, hotel spokesman Gayle Conran said.

“It’s really the closest hotel, only about a mile away, so medical staff won’t have to drive home. ... Just put your head on a pillow and get a good night’s sleep,” Conran said, adding occupancy at the hotel had been low in recent days.

“The offer will run through April 17, and then we’ll re-evaluate it and see what the world looks like and what the need is,” she said.

Any guests who might be displaced as a result of the special offer to medical staff are being transferred to the Hyatt Place Chicago South, Conran said. Olympia Hotel Management runs both hotels.

“The Hyde Park Sophy is a campus hotel to a certain extent,” Coran said. “And they really just feel like part of the community, and that community includes the University of Chicago Medical Center as well.”