Hotels left high and dry after Delhi government diktat to stay closed

New Delhi: Hoteliers and hotel associations said they are baffled with the Delhi government’s announcement to allow religious places, malls and restaurants to re-open from Monday while deciding to keep hotels shut.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said many hotels and banquet halls in the National Capital Territory of Delhi may be converted into hospitals in future because of growing Covid-19 cases in the city.

“While we welcome Delhi government's order to open malls and restaurants, we are equally baffled at their reasons for not opening hotels,” said Dipak Haksar, advisor to CII’s national committee on tourism and hospitality. “With new guidelines issued by ministry of health, hotels are more than ready to open and provide a safe environment for both our guests and staff.”

CHL Ltd, owner of Hotel Surya, has already challenged in the Delhi HC a May 29 order of the Delhi government to convert five Delhi hotels into extended Covid-19 hospitals. Both CII and FICCI had also written to the Delhi government on the matter.

“This is a very unfortunate turn of events,” said Garish Oberoi, general secretary of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India. “While we were happy that the Indian government has finally decided to open hotels and restaurants, we have states and union territories like Delhi... We understand cases are alarming but singling out hotels and banquets to convert them into hospitals would be a major setback for the industry.”

“Our future business will be finished if more hotels are converted into hospitals. Our staff and guests will not be comfortable coming back. Hotels in the city have been shut anyway for the past three months and are reeling under severe losses. We will approach the government on the matter,” he added.

A senior executive of a hotel chain, which is currently offering quarantining services for asymptomatic travellers in the city, termed the order very strange. “There is a fair amount of ambiguity and no one knows what is happening,” the executive said. “Where is the crowd in a hotel compared to the restaurants and malls that have been allowed to operate?If they are planning to convert more hotels into hospitals then the responsibility and onus of service should completely be on the hospitals.”