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“The world is temporarily closed for renovation. But it will reopen soon. Like the Stadthalle boutique hotel.” This message is featured on the Vienna hotel home page by Michaela Reitterer, who is also President of the Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV). Reitterer wants to unlock again in February and hopes that it will be possible later.
From November 3, the start of the second Corona closure in Austria, hotels and guesthouses can only accommodate business travelers. Currently, these are rarely found. Passengers are not worth staying open. “We need a certain basic workload for everything to make sense,” says the businessman in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”. Her 23 employees work part-time and she herself is at home three times a week to check that everything is going well. In the background, room inquiries are answered and reservation changes are made.
“Painful but inevitable”
The extension of the blockade until at least 7 January announced by the federal government on Wednesday is “painful, but probably inevitable,” says the president of the ÖHV. The number of infections must be reduced quickly and sustainably so that there is no unpleasant awakening in the New Year.
As reported, revenue replacement was extended for affected industries, but compensation was reduced from 80 percent for November to 50 percent for December. In January, companies have to access fixed-cost subsidies. Most businesses could be saved by replacing December turnover of 50 percent and continuing short-term work through the critical phase, according to Reitterer. But especially for leading companies with triple-digit number of employees, where multiple locations are combined in one company, such as hotel chains, the 800,000 euro limit for sales replacement will become an existential problem, he warns and demands. a quick fix.
Christoph Matznetter, president of the Social Democratic Business Association (SWV), is a long way from ‘no matter what it takes’ for declining sales. Furthermore, companies indirectly affected by the hospitality closures continue to achieve nothing , “because the Minister of Finance does not manage to arrive at an adequate system.” Blümel only explains every time again how complicated it is to compensate those affected indirectly. “But just because something is complicated, it should not disappoint these entrepreneurs,” he said. Matznetter.
In the first week of November, Finance Minister Gernot Blümel said that they were also working on a possibility “for those upstream providers that are not directly affected by the shutdowns but actually do 100 percent of their business with companies affected by closures “. get more help. “At the request of the” Wiener Zeitung “it was confirmed that work was still in progress.
The extension costs the state one billion euros
The one-time extension of revenue replacement costs the state an additional € 1 billion. It is a short-term instrument to save the “very difficult situation”, said Finance Minister Blümel.
According to Oliver Picek, chief economist at the Momentum Institute, the total replacement cost of sales could now amount to € 7 billion, provided that, as announced, part of their sales are also reimbursed to wholesalers. In general, income replacement has proven to be a general instrument that is not very accurate, extremely inefficient, and extremely expensive.
In closed operations, personnel costs, cost of goods, and other variable costs would be largely eliminated. “For an average performing hotel with normally around 10 percent of profit (from sales), a replacement of 50 percent of sales in the event of an official closure can still mean a very decent profit of up to 20 percent. of sales, “says Picek. The prerequisite is that the hotel is able to reduce variable costs for personnel and materials during closure. Actual fixed costs only account for about 30 percent of sales, he calculates.
The profits of many hoteliers and restaurateurs could increase in November and December compared to the previous year despite the closure. “It is not the state’s job to pay the hoteliers and restaurateurs’ earnings, even if only for individual months,” Picek said.
The replacement of income for blocking for November can be requested through FinanzOnline from November 6, 2020. The December compensation must be requested again, this is possible from December 16. The application deadline is January 15, 2021.
The Finance Ministry justified the reduction in compensation on the homepage as follows: The replacement of 80 percent of the income in November was necessary because twice the salaries had to be paid in November. December is the peak sales season in many areas. Therefore, it is easier to overcompensate. (ede)
