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Local hotels are empty: waiting for an opening is increasingly unbearable.
© Pexels / Photomix Company (Subject)
In limbo and increasingly desperate: hotels have been officially closed since November due to the corona pandemic and the persistently high number of infections.
ÖHV: “It is not entirely clear what is coming” – Corona street test in accommodation establishments[…]
Winter is almost over, the winter tourist season hasn’t even started. Companies yearn for guidance. Tonight, the government wants to announce the additional course of action for the shutdown. “I would like so much that we had a schedule”, thus the heartfelt wish of the president of the hotel association, Michaela Reitterer.
Uncertainty: hotel employees at home for four months
“It is little to say: we still do not know anything, let’s meet again in two weeks,” the head of the ÖHV clarified her expectations in the direction of politics on Monday afternoon. “We need that: our employees are now at home for four months in a row, with 15% to 20% less salary and no tips,” explained Reitterer, who runs a hotel in Vienna, in an interview with the APA.
In the industry, however, the lockdown for hosting providers is not expected to be lifted, with the opening date still undefined. That was already indicated by the insinuations of the Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Rudolf Anschober (Greens) in the days before the expert consultations this morning; infection numbers are likely still too high for that.
ÖHV boss calls for rapid implementation of road tests
“It is not entirely clear what will come next,” said Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV) spokesman Martin Stanits. “We are moving toward the demand for rapid implementation of test paths: test, test, test!” And that’s also in lodging companies: according to a survey among member companies of the quality hotel industry, one in two hoteliers would open a Corona test route in their own hotel. “If pharmacies can be used for testing, so can we,” Stanits said.
If the government surprisingly says today that things will start on March 1, this would mean an occupancy rate of between 19 percent in city and seminar hotels and a good 41 percent in wellness and thermal spa hotels for the month, a current ÖHV poll. Ski hotels were expecting 26 percent in this case, so almost three out of four beds would be empty.
Maintaining the minimum distance in hotels without problems
“This is a use that is not economical, but you can take employees to companies and also maintain the officially prescribed distances without any problem,” said the hotelier’s spokesman. After the first confinement there was “70 to 80 percent self-control” in terms of occupancy in the establishments in order to maintain the minimum distance between guests and staff.
In view of the more aggressive corona mutations and to avoid infection, the safety distance specified by health authorities was recently increased to 2 meters. “We are ten times more separated than in the hairdresser,” Stanits stressed and urged to open the hotels.
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