Staycation and local support key to saving bruising year – hotelier
OPENING the doors of his Wild Rose Cafe in Duncannon on Monday was like opening a new business for Richard Tobin.
Over the course of two days in mid-March the cafe lost everything, including profit from providing 500 meals a day at Ramsgrange Community School and from serving customers and providing accommodation.
‘It’s like opening for the first time; nearly like the first time you turn the keys on your first business,’ Richard said on Thursday. ‘My heart will be in my mouth about it. Will people be conscious about coming in? Maybe they will be grand and will forget about it, but you can’t forget about it: it’s the new normal!’
Richard and his wife Helene are excited about reopening the Fort Conan Hotel to guests, but will start with the cafe.
Applying a two metre distancing rule, the protection of their staff – which are like an extended family to them – is the main priority, along with ensuring customers can come in and enjoy their meal or coffee and cake knowing they are safe.
The 13 staff will return over the coming days and weeks.
Giving people space will see diners sit in tables of four, in some cases tables for six family members may be accommodated. Going from ten to four tables will mean plenty of room for diners and Richard and Helene are ensuring there will be no reaching over customers, for the protection of staff and visitors to the Wild Rose alike.
‘We have space at the moment. The bar is gone for the foreseeable; there will be more people drinking at home; this is the new normal. We will give it our best shot. Closing was a big shock. We have to treat this as an infection and realise that it’s there.’’
Richard and Helene stopped taking room bookings early on in the ‘ lockdown’ because of a lack of rules and regulations.
Over recent weeks, regulars have called and they will start accommodating them from next week.
Opening a hotel poses significant challenges, however, as Richard points out.
‘ The cleaning schedules are daunting. Everything down to the mattress protectors have to be changed. It’s all costly and time consuming. If check-out is at 12 p.m. you really need 24 hours between then and when the room can be occupied again.’
Richard and Helene are extremely grateful for the repeat business and are hoping local support will see them through the summer and autumn into the winter.
‘We’ve had people coming here for years; they would even know the dog’s name. Unfortunately the céad míle fáilte and the arm around the shoulder and hug is gone from hospitality for the time being, but we are looking forward to seeing people and hopefully people will come.
‘ This is the big issue. People are saying they’ll come back, but will they?’
He said: ‘It has been stressful. You don’t know whether your job is gone or not. Normally you’d have St Patrick’s Day weekend, in April we’d have older groups staying with us and army groups and then families would come back. We lost both the May and Whit weekends but we are hopeful because we have a great local market.’
Richard said there is no point talking about a good summer because there are only eight weeks left in it.
‘People are trying their living best. There won’t be as many people [in] but it will take the same amount of work. We’ve to cover a bigger area to serve the same amount of people. The most important people to me are our family here: Helene and my daughters Emma and Lisa and staff, who are our extended family.’
Richard said with a bit of good luck and fine weather the rest of 2020 will see business boom at his cafe and hotel.