Weekend restrictions put Mysuru hoteliers in a tight spot

MYSURU: The stakeholders of the hospitality industry are caught between a rock and hard place owing to the weekend curfew.
On one hand, business has almost bitten the dust and on the other side outstation employees are planning to return home. This has put hotel managers in a tight spot. As all their efforts in seeking a relaxation from curfew at least in city limits have gone in vain.
With CM Basavaraj Bommai ruling out a relaxation from the weekend lockdown in Mysuru, the situation has become dicey for hoteliers. They are pacifying their outstation employees saying things will return to normal soon.
“There is nothing much we can do about it. We’ll have to grin and bear it,” said Bharat D, a hotelier. “In the first place, we don’t have business and secondly, we must pay our outstation employees,” he added.
“Things appeared normal soon after the lockdown was lifted a month back. We summoned nearly a dozen employees from West Bengal by booking them air tickets after hotels were allowed to operate. The joy was short-lived. More than 50% of business for hotels and restaurants happens during weekends and shutting doors during the weekend is unimaginable for a businessman,” said the young hotelier.
Shivaram, an operations manager at a city hotel, said the sudden move to impose weekend lockdown has hit the hotel business hard. “We would have deferred summoning employees from outside as it causes a heavy burden on them. We must give about two dozen employees three meals a day and accommodation despite there being almost no business,” he said.
Pavithra Mehta, a hotel employee from West Bengal, said there is no work for him. He has much spare time as hotels are hardly getting any customers post lockdown. Two years into the industry, like many other employees, he is worried about his career advancement given the prevailing situation.
Most of the star hotels prefer employees from north and northeast India as they are available for work throughout the year unlike workers from the south, who often skip work leaving hoteliers in the lurch. The pandemic-induced lockdown and curfews have left hoteliers in a sticky situation.