Hospitality: talking is over, now it’s time for action
Hospitality businesses are not at all happy with the new measures, which will be officially announced at this evening’s press conference. Checking access and IDs at the door? Ridiculous—they simply don’t have time for that. Moreover: ‘The government is now using the hospitality industry to push through mandatory vaccination,’ hospitality entrepreneur Barry van den Berg tells Het Parool.
Hospitality entrepreneur Barry van den Berg, owner of café Del Mondo, is not keen on that whole checking process. ‘The government is using me to push through mandatory vaccination,’ he tells Het Parool. ‘They’re making us pull their chestnuts out of the fire.’ Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) agrees with him. The hospitality association is considering further steps. An urgent court case? Possibly. KHN director Dirk Beljaarts: ‘Is this still proportionate, especially in view of the freedoms granted to all other sectors, such as shops?’
A farce
Barry van den Berg is not alone; Riad Farhat (owner of more than twenty hospitality businesses in Amsterdam, including ‘t Blauwe Theehuis, Waterkant, Bar Basquiat, Karavaan and Superette) has had enough too. ‘Those access checks are a farce,’ he says. ‘By law, I am not allowed to require my staff to get vaccinated. So an unvaccinated employee can be standing in the establishment. But if guests are unvaccinated, they can’t come in? Until now, I had no problem with the measures, although they were not all equally well thought out. We have always remained cooperative. But this is going too far. The limit has been reached. This is a disguised vaccination mandate.’
Resistance
The hospitality trade magazine Misset Horeca also reports that more and more hospitality business owners are saying they will not check their guests. ‘An unworkable and idiotic plan’ and ‘misuse of the hospitality industry’, according to various entrepreneurs. Ahmed Baglari of By Ami restaurant in Rotterdam hopes that everyone will resist, including his colleagues in the hospitality industry. ‘If it were up to us, we wouldn’t want to exclude anyone, create distinctions or cause division. A QR code goes one step too far for us when it comes to visiting hospitality venues. We would rather guarantee 1.5 metres of distance between tables than exclude someone from society.
No time for it
The hospitality industry simply does not have time for someone at the door checking coronavirus certificates and IDs, says Eveline Doornhegge of KHN Amsterdam. ‘A checker at the door does not generate revenue; they only cost money. They are in short supply because of the current staff shortage.’
Too few officers
Moreover, how will this be enforced? Police officers and enforcement officers are concerned about that. Will the police fine visitors, or will the hospitality business receive a fine? There is a shortage of police officers, and if enforcement officers have to start checking this, they will not be able to get to other work.
What now?
KHN is considering further steps. Barry van den Berg knows what to do: ‘We need to boycott and sabotage this wholeheartedly,’ he says.
Read also:
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- Be kind to the hospitality industry and don’t do this when you go out to eat
Source: Het Parool, Misset Horeca
