‘UTILITIES ARE BY FAR THE BIGGEST WORRY’
Hotel boss reveals challenges facing hospitality industry
A HOTEL fears its monthly energy bill is set to quadruple – to a whopping £20,000.
The September gas and electric bill at Hotel Rudyard, near Leek, was £5,065.
But that did not include any heating and the venue’s current energy contract comes to an end in January. It comes as the cost of food and drink is also soaring.
Now Hotel Rudyard has lifted the lid on the challenges facing the hospitality industry in the cost of living crisis. It has been operating for at least 100 years and was taken on by father-anddaughter Jim Lepke and Jessica O’brien in 2019.
Jim, aged 58, said: “Hospitality has been through a few world wars. There will be a lot fewer hospitality venues in 12 months time. I personally employ the best part of 30 local people.
“I’m not going to say we won’t be in business in 12 months because we will. But it’s going to be a massively challenging time ahead for lots of people.
“People will go out less but when they do go out they’ll want a great experience. It’s the reason we’ve invested over £500,000 in the hotel.”
He added: “The September bill for gas and electric was £5,065. When this contract comes to an end, on my new rate, the same energy will cost £19,319. My contract ends in January and I imagine it would be in excess of that as I’ve only compared it to September figures with no heating.
“Utilities have skyrocketed and it’s different for commercial properties than it is at home.”
In the current contract, the price of electricity is 15.04p per/kwh. When the contract renews in January, the price of electricity will be 58.32p per/kwh.
The current price of gas is 3.88p per/kwh. This will go up to 18.42p per/kwh.
And it’s not just utility bills which are costing more.
Jim added: “It’s costing us about 20 per cent more to get the food in than it did this time last year. Per pint, it has gone up by about 20 per cent.
“If you go back to the late 1980s, yes inflation might have been running at double figures and wages weren’t keeping in line with the inflation but then we didn’t have massive utility bills to pay.
“The utilities are by far the biggest worry in any business
currently. Staff wages used to be the big number to control but now it’s the utility bills.
“I’ve put a timer clock on the bottle fridges. We’re going to have to look at ways to minimise the effect of the extortionate increases we’re experiencing.”