Social distancing crippling hotels even as room caps increase from 20 to 75
Pubs have labelled the phasing in of new customer caps a joke in a new survey, slamming them as token PR gestures that won’t save them.
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Changes from tomorrow lifting the COVID-19 customer cap at licenced venues from 20 to 75 per room will mean little or no change for seven in every 10 hotel venues, polling shows.
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Ian Horne said the remaining rule from today of one customer for every 4sq m had left many in the industry “in despair”.
“Every single hospitality operator needs relief from this debilitating and crushing one customer in each 4sq m rule,” Mr Horne said.
“Despair is the overwhelming emotion of operators in the hospitality industry, simply because the vast majority get zero benefit from further lifting of restrictions while the one customer for 4sq m remains.”
Mr Horne said the AHA had sought feedback from members this week, and 67.7 per cent – 101 of the 149 responding – revealed the cap increase would have no impact on the numbers allowed inside their venues.
And the AHA has questioned Government discussions about relaxing the rule for small bars only.
“I simply don’t believe the that Government will consciously seek to advantage one component of the hospitality industry to the deliberate exclusion of the majority,” Mr Horne said.
“The plight of small venues in the CBD is repeated a thousandfold or more across metropolitan and regional South Australian hotels, pubs, bars, licenced clubs, wineries and restaurants.
Mr Horne said the hotel sector also was reeling from travel restrictions, which another survey of 53 SA hotel owners – by STR Global – revealed had cut occupancy April to April from 81 per cent to 15 per cent and dollars earned per room per day from $119 to $17.
Last week the State Government announced a package of changes from today, which lifts the per-room cap on patrons from 20 to 75, and the total venue cap to 300.
And today it is expected to allow small bars to increase patrons from one per every 4 sq m to one per 2 sq m.
Clubs SA chief executive Mike Penfold said all venues in the liquor and hospitality sector should be treated equally, and the lifting of caps would not help many sporting, community and RSL clubs struggling to open and pay expenses.
“A 2sq m space for each patron would make things viable for a lot of clubs which are now open on very limited hours, and allow a lot of others to open,’’ he said.
“A lot of our members are against the wall at the moment.’’
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The AHA survey also revealed, of the 149 respondents, 8 per cent would remain closed, and 6 per cent would be able to open new areas of the hotel.
Some complained that the rule change would only help them in outdoor areas, with one commenting: “This doesn’t help much in the middle of winter.”
Another was only allowed to increase customers by one person because of the changes.
Mr Horne said many comments on the survey reflected the despair in the industry.
“The phase-in changes are a joke,” one said. And another: “While the one in four rules remains, these token ‘helps’ are a completely useless and designed for general public noise (debate) only”.
One hotel owner said: “We cannot sustain our business for much longer in the current circumstances.
“Our largest room is 80sq m, or 20 people. Our capacity was 290 overall but I can only have 45 people total with the one in 4sq me rule. Bloody ridiculous.”