“If I can talk to you during the lunch hour, supposedly the busiest time of the day, you can very well see the state of our business,” says Krishnamoorthy of RKV Annapurna Residency, a premier dining and lodging hotel in Krishnagiri town.
For a small town with very few recreational avenues, and fewer eat-outs, COVID-19 has dropped the hammer on the hotel and restaurant business.
A favourite spot for the locals and a stopover for those heading for Bengaluru, RKV Residency has seen a fall in business by 70%. The restaurant also cut down its food production progressively. From a cut to 75 per cent of its usual production on Tuesday, it dropped to 50% on Friday.
First, the bookings for the reception hall were cancelled once a cap on the number of guests was put at the behest of the district administration as a safety measure. Soon, the bookings got cancelled on their own, says Mr. Krishnamoorthy, whose 55-room hotel has less than 10 rooms occupied now.
The restaurant sterilised all vessels in hot water to ensure safety and gave day off for sick staff. However, the customers have stopped eating out completely, he says.
Satish Kumar, the manager of Hotel Mangalam, a premier restaurant for non-vegetarian fare, says he has not seen such a grim slowdown ever since he got into food business.
Mangalam has seen a steep 60 % decline in footfall, and is reducing food production. “Soon, we will have to cut down staff strength, since there are no customers, says Mr. Kumar.
The impact of GST and demonetisation pales in comparison with that of COVID-19, he says. “There was no fall in footfall then, people kept coming. But this is a totally different blow altogether,” he says.
Now, with the hotels associations sending out a circular asking all restaurants to shut down in the wake of the Prime Minister’s call for “People’s curfew” on March 22, it is going to be another day of loss. “There is no point keeping the hotel open, when people are going to stay indoors,” says Mr. Krishnamoorthy.
Orders through food aggregators have also fallen. Home delivery orders have dropped by half for RKV Residency, which has tied up with Swiggy March-April usually sees good business due to school vacation. It is not so this year.
