West Bengal: Case surge rekindles lockdown fears for restaurants and hotels – Times of India

Kolkata News

There are some exceptions among restaurants and hotels which continue to enjoy good businesses even in the past 10 days.

KOLKATA: The three-layered impact of Covid scare following second wave of the virus, financial year-ending and elections, has led to a major drop in sales for restaurants in the last fortnight while the hotels too have witnessed a slump in room occupancy. All eyes are now on the Poila Baisakh for recovery. There are some exceptions among restaurants and hotels which continue to enjoy good businesses even in the past 10 days.
The president of Hotel and Restaurants Association of Eastern India (HRAEI), Sudesh Poddar pointed out that there has been a drastic fall in sales for most of the restaurants in the last one week. “Because of the re-emergence of the pandemic and elections, we are witnessing a fall in sales. There is a decreasing trend every day,” he added.
Poddar told TOI that the situation had been improving since September and, in December-January, restaurants had got back over 80% of pre-Covid business. However, the situation went bad from the third week of March. Elaborating on the plight of the hotel business, he added that on an average the occupancy level now is 25%-30%.
“Most of the hotels are now struggling and few hotels are still closed as they feel it would be difficult to manage even the overhead cost,” he added.
Pradip Rozorio, owner of KK’s Fusion, Mio Amore agreed with Poddar. According to him, last 7-10 days were really bad. “The sales are down by almost 30-35% compared to the peak sales in December-January. The weekdays are really bad and weekends were no better,” he added.
The director of Aminia, Kabir Azhar pointed out that the dining sales were sluggish for the last one week in most of its outlets.
However, he added that there has been no change in online sales (home delivery). “This is because of Covid, election and may be Holi. We hope that the market will again peak during the Bengali New Year from mid-April. We are optimistic to get back on dine sales soon,” he added. T S Walia, the former national president of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, feels that every year this time used to be a bit sluggish because of the year-ending. “It is not very unusual as March is not a very good month for F&B. We hope that from mid-April it will again go up,” he added.
Debaditya Chowdhury, MD of Chowman, Oudh and Chapter 2, has the same opinion as Walia, though he was worried about the Covid perception.
“Yes, the Covid perception may have an impact on sales but as of now we have not faced any slump considering the fact that March usually is a bit dull business-wise. We hope that from mid-April onwards it would look up,” he added.
Nitin Kothari, owner of iconic restaurants like Peter Cat and Mocambo, has not felt any negative impact in March unlike most of the restaurants. “Thank god we have not faced any drop in sales. We are continuing at 80-90% of the pre-Covid level,” he added.
Commenting on the impact on hotels, the associate vice-president of Pride Hotels, Vinay Thakur said that the occupancy rate has gone down to 30-40% in last two weeks. “In January-February it was 60-65%. The marriage season is also over now so we are feeling the pinch,” he added.
The director of operations of J W Marriot, Sabrina Dey said that most of the hotels are facing tough times. However, there is exception also in hotels. Rishi Jain, director of Holiday Inn added that it is still enjoying 70-80% occupancy in the hotel.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/west-bengal-case-surge-rekindles-lockdown-fears-for-restaurants-and-hotels/articleshow/81894113.cms