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The crisis of the crown hits especially the urban hotels. Now he is claiming his first prominent victim with the Swissôtel Zurich.
The Swissôtel Zurich closes its doors.
The Swissôtel Zurich at Oerlikon Train Station is firmly established in the Zurich hotel scene, and not just because the 4-star establishment soars 85 meters into the sky, higher than any other establishment in the city. “It is considered a successful, well-positioned company with professional management,” says Martin von Moos, president of the Zurich Hotel Association. All the greater was the surprise, yes, the shock for Zurich hoteliers when the news leaked on Friday afternoon that the hotel should be closed.
Dramatic drop in overnight stays
“Zurich Swissôtel is closing – 270 jobs missing!” Was the headline of “Blick” in its online edition. Upon request, the management of the four-star hotel was referred to the Accor hotel group, which had taken over the city hotel in 2017, for a statement. A spokeswoman for corporate headquarters in Munich confirmed the report, though she was cautious: a partial closure of the Swissôtel Zurich was being “reviewed.” “Currently it is planned to maintain the catering operations and therefore the connection with local guests while the accommodation facilities are closed.”
It doesn’t take long to find the reason for the closure. The Corona crisis is having a particular impact on the hotel and tourism industry, according to the Accor Group statement. The pandemic has hit urban hotels a lot. In July, the number of overnight stays in Zurich was more than 75 percent below the level of the previous year. Although there were more than 367,000 overnight stays in July 2019, this year the figure was just under 89,000. In previous months, the drop was in some cases much more pronounced. The Swissôtel near the airport is likely to have been particularly hit by the bear market for air passengers. Accor does not disclose how many people will lose their jobs.
Between 2 and 5 percent employed
Just three months ago, the NZZ took a look at the Swissôtel Zurich. It was obvious at the time that the company was suffering greatly from a lack of guests. General manager Kevin Furrer pinned his hopes on the effect of the border openings. It said sales had temporarily plummeted 95 percent and that between April and May only 2 to 5 percent of the 347 rooms were occupied. At the time he was still hoping to make up for some of the loss caused by urban commuters from Switzerland and Europe.
It is unclear how the property will continue to be used. The “Blick” writes about commercial apartments to be built. It would be a major disruption: the building, completed in 1972 and inaugurated under the name “Hotel International Zurich”, has always been used as a hotel.
The history of the company is checkered: it went down in history due to the tragic circumstances of a fire that occurred on February 14, 1988. The flames burned meters high that Sunday afternoon from the 24th and last floor of the International Hotel. Six people lost their lives in the great fire. A bartender’s apprentice had refilled a fuel burner, used to keep food warm at the Panorama Grill restaurant, from a plastic container. The fuel passed over the device and ignited.
One of the big three
The building has been a listed building since 2013. “At the crossroads between the market square and the station square it stands as an expression of modernity and the construction boom during the boom of the time,” wrote the Office of Urban Development. The hotel was built at the same time as the large Atlantis and Nova Park hotels (now Crowne Plaza). It represents the great Zurich hotels that were built around 1970.
Precisely because the hotel has been one of the great ones to this day, the closure makes Martin von Moos think. The Swissôtel was a model company in many ways. “It not only depended on accommodation, it was diversified”, with options for company banquets or conferences and seminars, for example. The decision is even more surprising.
The mood could be summed up as follows: if such a well-positioned company has to close down, things must go wrong for Zurich hotels. Von Moos does not disagree. “Many houses are only kept alive by injecting liquidity.” There are large differences in terms of ownership, some belong to international operating companies, others are family companies. The attitude of the investor is decisive.
In fact, now would be the time when leisure tourism takes a back seat and business travelers take on importance. The first was barely carried out due to Corona, the second was almost completely canceled. Therefore, Von Moos advocates for rapid tests at airports, a demand that has recently grown strong. Entrepreneurs who regularly spend two or three days in Zurich could not spend ten days in quarantine.
“The gunpowder went off”
Urban hotels currently rely heavily on government action. Many traders got a Covid 19 loan in the spring, and now they have spent this money. The instrument of short-time work is important and needs to be expanded. “Without short-term work we would have extensive closings.” Personnel accounts for about half of fixed costs. A second important element is the rental costs. Conditions are very different there too: some owners are very accommodating, others are not. It is not clear how long the owners will be willing to accept losses.
Von Moos sums it up like this: “Hoteliers have exploded. And we have absolutely no prospect of it getting any better. “The Swissôtel will not be the last hotel in Zurich to close this fall.
