The doors of around 10,000 hotels in Maharashtra were closed for the last four months due to the lockdown, which was allowed to open on Wednesday. However, the situation is not clear about when these hotels will be allowed to run bars and restaurants for outsiders. At present, food and drinking facilities have been allowed only for those staying in the hotel. Catering services account for about 10 to 15 percent of the hotel business's revenue.
Meanwhile, hotel companies have started making special packages to attract guests. Taljinder, senior vice president of Mumbai Hotels of IHCL, said that the iconic Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai will currently open only Shamiana and Taj Saloon restaurants. He said that the state government is gradually giving relaxation in the rules, so we hope to get permission to start more services in the coming days. Atul Bhalla, Area Manager (West) at ITC Hotels, said, "Starting hotels is just beginning." The banquet and restaurant are being discussed at the opening. Under the 33% capacity regulations, ITC can operate in its hotels in Mumbai with 200 rooms. Booking has already started for this.
Large hotel groups have made full preparations to open the doors of their hotels for income as their income has stalled since March. Rahul Makhija, general manager of Park Hotel in Navi Mumbai, has offered family and couple special packages. One can book a room in their hotel on weekends for 10,000 rupees (tax separately), in which the food will be free. ITC Hotels is offering a package for the weekend as well as a discount on the food bill. Along with this, special rent is being made available to those who want a room from 9 am to 9 pm. The Taj Mahal Palace has attracted guests with the Urban Gateway offers. It has a flexible policy of cancellation of bookings.
Bhalla of ITC said that he is opening his hotel with 25 to 30 percent of employees. Marriott has opened 19 hotels across Maharashtra.
Although hotels are starting to open in the state and businessmen are happy with their permission, but the beginning of business cannot be said to be good. Due to the Corona outbreak in Mumbai and neighboring cities, there was silence in small and medium hotels on the first day. Perhaps the hotel owners had already realized this, so on the first day, barely 30 percent of the hotels opened and which were open, even among them, there was a lull for Bohni. Even after waiting for a day, the people staying in the rooms hardly came.
There are around 50,000 budget hotels and lodges in Mumbai and surrounding areas. Most businessmen are saying that it will take at least one week to make hotels closed for four months. Lakhs of rupees will also be spent on each hotel, but due to the fear of Corona, the customers hardly get here. That is why the income and expenses will be in the condition of the rupee. Perhaps this is why most hotels are closed.
President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India, Gurbaksh Singh Kohli said that big hotels have opened but budget hotels will open gradually. 70 percent of the employees working in these hotels have returned to their homes. Those who are left are also hardly able to reach due to poor traffic system. Although 40-50 percent of the hotels will open in a week, Kohli said that 20-30 percent of the hotels who have suffered due to lockdown can hardly reopen.
Bharat Malkani, an owner of the T24 Hotel, said that there are no laborers to make hotels that have been closed for four months. Even then they had started booking but not a single customer came. Malkani says that all the places to visit in Mumbai are closed, no one is coming here from Kabhar after seeing the condition of Corona, rail-air service is also not operating properly. In such a situation, who will come to stay in hotels.
There is also the complaint of budget hotel owners that they have not received any help from the governments even after facing the biggest losses. Kohli is seeking exemption in property tax, electricity bills, etc. They say that if this does not happen, then the big hotels will open, whose number is barely 5 percent, but the budget hotels will be broken.
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