Hotel using COVID-19-emptied rooms to shine encouraging messages to the world

Daniel Sergei/Sergei Photography – @sergeiphoto(VIRGINIA) — Like many hotels, the DoubleTree Hotel in Northern Virginia has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s turning lemons into lemonade by using the lights in its unsold rooms to spell out encouraging messages. 

The Washington Post reports hotel management wanted to “illuminate messages of hope” to commuters on Interstate 395 between Virginia and D.C. by using the hotel’s room lights to spell out words like, “Hope,” “Love,” and “Kind.” 

The hotel even used its facade to create a the image of a heart, using only room lights from within. 

The man behind the messages is Ken Kruger, who uses a color-coded sheet to come up with a design, then spends hours going through the ten-floor hotel to use room lights and window shades to literally bring the images to light. 

“We wanted people to know: You’re not alone, people are thinking about you,” hotel manager Charles Hill tells the paper.

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