Hospitality industry calls for two-metre social distancing rule to be halved

Key Take Away

Actioning advice from the World Health Organisation to use one meter for social distancing from July would enable many more pubs to viably reopen and serve their communities again.

UK Hospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls told BBC Radio 4'sToday program: "At two meters you are receiving 30 percent of your normal revenues, at one meter it gets up to 70 percent - so it is the difference between success and failure for many of those businesses.

The reopening of venues is expected to begin from July 4 in England and the Government is expected to publish its guidelines

For More Information

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1292492/coronavirus-lockdown-two-metre-social-distancing-halved-hospitality-industry

International quarantine rules ‘another blow’ to tourism and hospitality industry

Key Take Away

From June 8, anybody arriving in the UK from an international country via plane, train or ferry, will be required to isolate for two weeks, with fines of up to £1,000 given out to those breaking the rules announced by the Home Secretary  Priti Patel.

The idea of ‘air bridges’ is also being championed, which would see agreements made with countries with low R numbers to let passengers travel between them without going into quarantine.

For More Information

www.boutiquehotelier.com/international-quarantine-rules-another-blow-to-tourism-and-hospitality-industry/

How UK hotels are preparing for the holiday season from hell

Across the country, hotels that were shuttered at the start of the coronavirus pandemic have become eerie, empty shells. Front desks are devoid of receptionists ready to check-in guests, rooms are collecting dust. And with the summer season on the horizon, life for UK hoteliers is about to get much harder

The majority of Britons who had planned a domestic holiday in the UK this year believe that it is unlikely to go ahead, according to domestic tourism research from VisitBritain. "Those domestic summer holidays lost are not likely to be replaced with only a minority who have cancelled holidays looking to replace them," says Patricia Yates, chief executive of VisitBritain.

If lockdown doesn't lift by this summer, it would be a huge financial blow to many of the 13,000 hotels and over 35,000 B&Bs and guest houses in the UK, which make around 30 per cent of their annual revenue during the summer months. Chris Tate, partner at audit, tax and consulting firm RSM, says hotels that host corporate events skew the market's revenue figures because they are busiest from October through November — hiding just how dire the summer drop-off can be for the rest of the market

Booking.com plans for lay offs after landing $4bn loan

Online travel agent Booking.com has told employees in an internal memo that layoffs from the company are "probable", just days after the Financial Times reported it had received a $4 billion loan in bonds from investors to fend off severe effects caused by the coronavirus crisis.

In a video conference held with hundreds of employees, Booking.com chief executive Glenn Fogel is believed to have said cost-cutting would likely be necessary across different parts of the company, according to the Financial Times' report.

One of Booking.com's key competitors, Expedia Group, has already been forced to make 3000 employees redundant  since the turn of the year as reality bites.

Booking.com is committing to slash marketing expenditure, executive salaries and hirings for the foreseeable future, as a major cost-cutting exercise and bookings continue to drop to 85 per cent year-on-year in April compared to the same period in 2019.

Layoffs, rejig one-time exercise, will be over soon: Oyo CEO

Some parts of Oyo Hotels & Homes weren’t probably ready for the pace of growth it has witnessed and the hospitality chain is trying to address such issues this year, says its new chief executive for India and South Asia, Rohit Kapoor in an exclusive interview to The Economic Times. While confirming reports of job cuts at the company, he tells Anumeha Chaturvedi that it is asking about 15-20% of its 12,000 employees to go in a “one-time exercise” that “is going to end very soon”. There is no  deadline from Japanese investor SoftBank to report operational profitability on some businesses, he says, and adds that the management is committed to improving relations with hotel partners.

Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal has reportedly said the company is asking some of its employees to move to a new career. What explains this?
The question that whether some staff members are being asked to go is correct. Over the last one and a half years, there has been an increase in revenue to about 3x, and we had 1-million-plus rooms globally by the end of 2019. But I don’t think we have any hesitation in admitting that growing at the pace that we did over the last three years, we did sometimes go ahead of ourselves … What we mean is that maybe all parts of the organisation were not ready for that pace of growth and that scale of  of operations, and 2020 is the year when we are taking active steps to address this. We have a clear roadmap for continuing to drive success for Oyo for this year and beyond based on factors like sustainable growth.

Oyo sees signs of recovery in China after coronavirus outbreak

 Oyo Hotels and Homes has started to see a recovery in bookings in China, its second-largest market, as the coronavirus outbreak eases up in some parts of the country, the Indian hospitality startup’s Chief Executive Ritesh Agarwal

 A rise in imported coronavirus cases and the lifting of restrictions on movement in some cities in China have raised the prospect of a second wave of infections that could thwart the country’s economic recovery

Oyo, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp , has cut thousands of jobs this year, including in China, as the company focuses on becoming profitable and grapples with the coronavirus outbreak.

Oyo would offer free accommodation at its roughly 300 U.S. hotels to doctors, nurses and other medical first responders who are helping to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Hospitality sector calls for emergency Coronavirus support

Owners of hotels, nightclubs, bars and restaurants are calling on the government for emergency assistance as wave of customers cancel bookings as a precaution against contracting coronavirus.

Sales in restaurants and bars in London were down 7% in the past week according to trade body UK Hospitality. It said declines had been registered in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester. Some nightclub owners said they had seen as many as 30% of those who had already bought tickets for events last weekend decide to stay away. Usually such events would have less than 10% no shows

Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, which represents nightclubs, bars, live music venues and pubs, said advanced bookings for members were down by between 20% and 30% on average, with London particularly affected by a drop in tourist visitors

Moving into the next phase – delay – could see the introduction of “social distancing” measures, such as closing schools and halting mass gatherings.