The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘CRISIS WILL HIT HOTEL INDUSTRY IN WINTER’
I CAN’T SEE HOW HOTELS WILL SURVIVE. WE DON’T HAVE CASH RESERVES TO GO FROM ONE YEAR TO THE NEXT
WELL-KNOWN Kenmare hotelier Francis Brennan has warned that there will be a major crisis in the hotel and tourism industry next winter.
Mr Brennan, who runs the Park Hotel in Kenmare, said that the effect of the current closures in the sector will not be seen until next winter.
“The problem is not just now... The cash-flow we [hotels] make in the summer is to get us through the winter. We are rock-bottom now in terms of cash-flow and we won’t make enough cash-flow to have in reserve for the winter,” he said this week.
Mr Brennan, who is renowned for offering advice to other businesses through his TV show At Your Service, foresees many hotels closing.
“I can’t see how they would survive. We don’t have cash reserves to go from one year to the next.”
Mr Brennan has previously stated that he intended to keep The Park Hotel open during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Government announced that all hotels had to close, though many had already done so.
The Park Hotel, however, had remained open to cater for guests and as a duty of care to the staff.
“We feel obliged to the staff and to people going away. If you keep a sensible house it can be done,” he said.
The hotel closed immediately following the Government decree, and guests staying at the hotel had to make other arrangements.
72 staff at the hotel have been temporarily left go during the closure, and arrangements with Government funding are being put in place for the staff.
Mr Brennan had not been working at the hotel as he had been in self-isolation following a US trip in recent weeks.
In his cheery, upbeat manner he is encouraging people who are in self-isolation to use this time to catch up on everything they never get a chance to do.
“I am doing things that I haven’t done for ages, “he told The Kerryman.
“I washed 15 sweaters yesterday and I filed away paperwork. There are pluses and minuses to every situation.”
He believes that it may be June before the sector becomes operational, meaning that months of revenue have been lost, which will be felt the following winter and put the sectors future in danger.
The hotelier also believes the current crisis will greatly affect the hotel industry with the loss of the international market.
“We have no access to the international market, we have to rely on the home-grown market. This is a disaster for the hotel industry but, hopefully, Irish people will support the industry later in the season.”