Sydney restaurants lose thousands to cancelled bookings with Omicron surge

Restaurants have already suffered a series of brutal knocks during the pandemic and as Christmas nears, it’s only getting worse for them.

End of year celebrations and big groups eating out is a huge win for hospitality at the end of the year but with Covid infections skyrocketing operators are facing a deluge of cancelled bookings resulting in lost profit in the tens of thousands.

NSW recorded its highest daily amount of Covid-19 cases over the course of the entire pandemic with infections soaring to 2213 on Friday, while Victoria’s case count came in at 1510.

Ibrahim Moubadder is the co-founder of Sydney hospitality group ESCA, which includes flagship restaurants Nour and Lilymu, alongside cafes and bars Henrietta, Cuckoo Callay, The Lobbyist and Be Kind. His business is one of many feeling the pain of cancellations.

He said Christmas is the busiest time of the year and the best for making a profit, but he was watching the cancellations roll in as Covid numbers rise, declaring “Omicron has killed us”.

“With each venue in these two weeks, we will have lost anywhere between $50,000 to $80,000 in profit,” he told news.com.au.

“I feel like we are a boxing pad, everyone is punching the hospitality industry left, right and centre.”

Jorge Farah and Ibrahim Moubadder, co-founders of Sydney hospitality group ESCA, which owns Nour, Lilymu, Henrietta and Cuckoo Callay.

The 32-year-old said their Surry Hills restaurant had 180 people booked for lunch on Friday but that has dropped to 105 and with an average spend of $100 that’s $7500 lost already.

“So 45 per cent of people have cancelled and when they call on the phone they are obviously scared, they are saying they don’t want to come to lunch and risk getting sick and it’s going to ruin their Christmas lunch, which is fair enough as I’m worried about the same thing,” he said.

“I’m going to the Whitsundays on Boxing Day and freaking out if I work at the restaurant, which I have to, and if someone has a case, it’s going to stop me going and I’ll have to cancel my flight and accommodation and I’m looking forward to it as I need a break.

“It just sucks for us that this is happening now.”

Dinner service bookings at Nour have dropped from 230 people to just 150 on Friday. However, he was hopeful that people getting spooked about Covid infections was just because Christmas is only eight days away and they don’t want their plans messed up with things returning closer to normal in the new year.

“I’m a bit hopeful with 95 per cent vaccinated … that people will learn we have to life with (the virus) and can’t hide away forever,” he said.

Inside Nour Restaurant.

Some of the food at Nour.

Hospitality venues in the Newcastle area had also been dealing with a spike in cancellations, according to Bob Hawes, Business Hunter chief executive.

”We’ve also seen venues that, as a consequence of their staff being identified as a close contact or actually testing positive, because of this critical situation we’ve got with labour supply, they are not able to get replacement labour at short notice,” he told the Australian Financial Review.

“They’re having to cut down their operating hours or in some cases close.

“It’s very unfortunate because this time of the year they try to get some money in the bank to carry them through the lighter periods of the year and also try to recover from what’s happened in the previous 12 months.”

But it’s not just NSW hospitality operators that are feeling the pinch, with small retail owners also worried that Christmas spending just wasn’t happening like in previous years.

Judith Treanor runs a gifting and summer fashion outfit called Temples and Markets and has been running a pop up store in Sydney shopping centre Chatswood Chase since November.

She said this year had been an “absolute shocker” in terms of sales and she had missed out on thousands in revenue.

Judith Treanor's revenue is down 70 per cent for Christmas trading.

Sales during November and December would usually make up 30 per cent of her annual revenue.

“I’m 70 per cent down on revenue and I’m now nervous if I can sustain the business come the new year and I think that’s going to be the case for so many other businesses and I can’t imagine how many are going to go under,” she told news.com.au.

The 51-year-old said compulsory mask wearing and check ins had put off some people from even browsing at non-essential stores but she thought easing of restrictions on December 15 in NSW may combat this issue.

“When the Omicron case in Chatswood dominated the news cycle a couple of weeks ago, the devastating effects on retail in the area were felt overnight. It’s got worse from then on in,” she said.

She added you can “feel the fear” with case numbers rising with very few people in the shopping centre, while retailers make the unusual move of already discounting before Christmas.

“When I left (on Thursday) – a week before Christmas, I didn’t make one sale and I was trying to hold the tears back. I’m wondering if my beautiful business that I have built up over six years is going to survive and I’m sure that’s going to be the case for many other people,” she said.

“Covid has ruined everything.”

Australian Hotels Association Ian Horne.

But the worries aren’t confined to NSW, with Victorian hospitality said to be suffering too.

“Hearing about lots of cancellations at Melbourne restaurants as people build a no-close-contact bubble around Christmas holidays. It’s understandable but gutting all the same,” wrote one woman on Twitter.

Meanwhile, everchanging restrictions and testing requirements in South Australia has seen cancellations “in the thousands” for corporate and personal Christmas parties across 6000 hospitality venues, Australia Hotels Association chief executive Ian Horne said.

“There is a continuing flow of cancellations, people are just getting extraordinarily nervous,” he told The Advertiser.