‘Once this is finally over, hospitality will come back stronger than ever’
Never in the history of British hospitality – and it’s a long one, stretching back to the Middle Ages – can there have been such an extraordinary, nail-biting, confusing, challenging and at times uplifting year as the one our nation’s hoteliers have just lived through.
It remains to be seen how many of the approximate 44,000 hotels and guesthouses in the country will fail to survive the financial turbulence that has been thrown in their path but, inevitable casualties apart, there is also a sense that, thanks to the pandemic, these providers of warmth, hospitality, good living and comfort have learned a great deal and become better operators as a result.
When, on March 16, Matt Hancock announced that “unnecessary social contact” should be avoided, many hoteliers felt hopeful they could somehow remain open. But when, on March 23, Boris Johnson told the nation they must “stay at home”, the game was up. There was nothing for it but to shut up shop, with no idea for how long.
Mothballing a hotel is not nearly as easy as it sounds. The swift introduction of Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme thankfully provided for the majority of hotel employees, while in many establishments key staff remained at work and in many instances moved into their own hotels, choosing a favourite bedroom in which to sleep and spending the days flushing lavatories, running taps and planning for the future. “We had the luxury of time,” said one, “to brainstorm on how to improve our hotel and make it perfect in the future.”
Not all hotels closed; a few remained open to provide accommodation for key workers, essential stays and homeless people. Claridge’s, notably, opened 40 of its bedrooms, normally costing £650 a night, for doctors and nurses at St Mary’s Paddington, while its kitchens churned out daily packed meals for more than 500 NHS workers and community support teams.
Many other hotels followed suit, with charitable endeavours from food and veg boxes from their kitchen gardens to takeaway meals from their kitchens.
As a date for the end of the first lockdown came into sight, hoteliers began to lobby parliament to soften the social distancing restrictions that would follow and Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, became a powerful spokesman for the industry. There was a collective sigh of relief, especially in smaller establishments, when the one-metre rule was announced: if it had remained at two metres, few hotels would have been able to cope financially with the ensuing lack of customers.
Hoteliers spent hundreds, and in the case of larger establishments, many thousands of pounds on antiviral equipment, from electrostatic sprayers and foggers (which made housekeepers look like Ghostbusters) to visors and masks. Tables in dining rooms were removed, one-way systems implemented, temperatures taken, staff rigorously trained. They even learned how to smile with their eyes. Somehow they made their guests feel welcome, comfortable and at ease while also safe – quite a feat. Their own safety and mental well-being was just as important: hotel owners have an equal responsibility to staff and guests.
Thanks to their preparations, when hotels reopened on July 4, they became some of the safest places one could be and at the same time much- needed havens of good living. Ever resourceful, some places offered “hotel at home” initiatives, voucher schemes, “workation” packages and welcome- back deals, while many rural and coastal hotels, much to their relief, found they were the beneficiaries of the staycation boom.
They were the lucky ones: with the lack of foreign and business visitors, city hotels fared much worse. Imagine our London grand dames, usually brimming with a constant, animated flow of people, struggling to stay above water with an occupancy rate of 10 per cent at worst, 20 per cent at best. At least those with restaurants were keeping busy on that front – until London entered Tier 2 on Oct 16 and only members of the same household were allowed to dine.
Then came the next blow: full lockdown again on Nov 5. This time, more than the smattering of hotels in the first lockdown were able to stay open, for essential stays including those that were business- related. On Dec 2 a revised tier system was put in place, with hotels in Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas able to reopen. Growing swathes of the country are in Tier 3, including London as of Dec 16, when its just-opened hotels see-sawed back into desolation.
Wales and Scotland have their own systems, meanwhile, with the former going back into lockdown on Dec 28, and much of the latter in the second most severe of five levels. In November, beloved Gleneagles took the decision to close until February.
There is an element of trust involved in every stay now, but what has never been in doubt is the flexibility of the hotel industry and its ability to wear its battle scars, which are deep, with grace and dignity.
However, British hospitality, which employs three million people, is now reeling and demands for better Government support, such as a dedicated minister for hospitality (called for by the likes of Robin Hutson who owns The Pig hotels), are growing by the day. Given that support, and once the pandemic is finally over, it has every hope of coming back stronger than ever.