The reopening of hotels more than two months after the lockdown has generated hardly any enthusiasm among the public. High operating costs, poor patronage, non-availability of staff and high cost of implementing COVID-19 protocol are casting a shadow on the operation of many hotels and restaurants in the city.
The threat of infection and changed priorities in view of the economic constraints caused by the pandemic, splurging on luxuries or spending money on eating out is a big ‘no’ for most citizens.
"No hotel is doing more than 20% of its normal business. New ‘containment zones’ coming up every day is making the matters worse. Rents are a big burden and around 10% of the small hotels are closing down," says Akella Venkata Ramana Murthy, president of the AP Hotels’ Association.
The situation is the same all over the State. A number of hoteliers have replenished their stocks of provisions, vegetables, milk and other essentials hoping to get back at least some of the lost business. But the increasing red zones are further denting the business pushing the hotels into losses.
"Most of the specialist chefs from Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal have left for their native places and we have to manage with the existing staff," laments a hotelier. The hospitality industry
Social functions like birthdays and family gatherings are being either postponed indefinitely or cancelled.
The large outstation student population of the city forms a big clientèle of hotels as they regularly eat outside. Most of them have left for their native places before the lockdown, impacting the sector adversely.
Hundreds of people from Odisha and Chattisgarh who come to the city for medical treatment at various superspecialty hospitals here is another source of business lost to the pandemic.
