Tough times to continue
Rates and occupancies will be under stress and challenging for some to stay afloat, says
Vice President - Operations & Asset Management, Chalet Hotels.
Travel is at a complete halt as of now and is expected to remain minimal for the next six to 12 months, assuming the COVID-19 outbreak is over by May-June. This obviously will impact the hotel industry negatively. “Most businesses around the world will take a hit and hence their travel budgets, too, shall be curtailed. Similarly, personal travel will take a back seat keeping in mind the economic uncertainties of jobs and businesses. Rates and occupancies, both will be under stress for the next few quarters and it will be very challenging for some to stay afloat,” says
Vice President Operations & Asset Management, Chalet Hotels.
Rajneesh Malhotra,
Chalet Hotels in turn has taken certain measures to deal with this situation. “We are currently focused on the health and safety of our associates and the guests staying at our hotels. We are also supporting the efforts of the agencies by providing whatever assistance we can such as duty meals to staff, personal protective equipment, etc. We are working on short, medium and long-term strategies to mitigate the impact of this crisis. However, these will take shape once we have clarity on how long the COVID-19 crisis is going to last,” Malhotra adds.
This kind of uncertainty is because not many hotel brands or owners were prepared for a situation like this. “Every company has a BCP (business continuity planning) in place and contingency plans, but all these are designed assuming it will be very
there will be business-as-usual happening in some other part(s) of the country or the continent or the globe which would not be affected by the crisis. But, the
COVID-19 crisis has impacted the globe and there is no businessas-usual anywhere in the world. There is no geography or business to fall back on,” he exclaims.
Future learning from this? Malhotra says, “Companies will be forced to think of restructuring their businesses and prepare for similar occurrences in future. A new balance between local and global will emerge.”