‘When we don’t have guests, we get withdrawal symptoms’
David Morgan-Hewitt, managing director of The Goring hotel
Over the past year, those of us in the hotels business have kept all the boring bits of our job – planning and budgeting and all the rest of it – but we’ve lost the bits that we’re all in the industry for. We came into this industry to meet people. It’s as simple as that. When we don’t have guests walking through the door, we get withdrawal symptoms.
In normal times, it’s lovely to go down and be part of all the excitement when people are coming in, whether it’s just for afternoon tea or a bride coming in for a life-changing couple of days with all their luggage.
In our jobs we are surrounded by joy, and The Goring is closed at the moment and I’ve been at home in Wells. But we are set to reopen our doors on May 17 and we are already seeing all the inquiries come through for weddings, for anniversaries, birthdays, and belated birthdays. People have really missed those celebrations.
In fact, I think we may see people actually inventing excuses for celebrations. We’ve missed it so much that I think people won’t just wait for birthdays and 25th wedding anniversaries and things. I think people will invent some amazing excuses, and why not? Getting through this awful pandemic, that has taken so many lives and that has put us all in these lockdowns that have been so difficult for everybody, will be worth celebrating.
People have got to feel safe and to feel that there’s some clear water between them and the pandemic. But when they feel that sense of safety, they will gather together. We are social animals, after all.