Inside story: the consequences when a hospitality business has to close for three weeks
It’s a crisis. In the country and in the hospitality industry. Over the weekend of Friday, March 13, many hospitality businesses decided to close their doors preventively. On Sunday, March 15, the government decided that this would be mandatory until April 6. For at least three weeks, your café, restaurant or bar has to close its doors, and that has serious consequences.
Bye-bye hospitality industry
Besides occasionally still working behind a bar, I mainly work for hospitality businesses. I do communications and administrative work for them. However, there is little left to communicate in these strange times. After the 130 reservations for one of the restaurants I work for were cancelled last Saturday, and after I published the Instagram and Facebook post on Sunday morning announcing that we would be closing our doors preventively, my tasks more or less came to an end. And that’s just me. When I think of all those chefs, bartenders, waiters, sommeliers and maîtres who are now almost all forced to stay at home, my hospitality heart cries.
Financial blow
(At least) three weeks without income is a very long time. You have rent for the premises that needs to be paid, employees with permanent contracts, direct debits for all kinds of ongoing contracts; hospitality costs a lot of money. Especially when nothing is coming in. Some hospitality businesses are already withdrawing all their money from their accounts so that direct debits aren’t simply processed. If that happens for several weeks while no money is coming in, things can go very wrong very quickly. Who absolutely needs to be paid? That is being done, but if everyone continues to be paid, some businesses won’t survive. So withdrawing the money from your account is an understandable reaction, but as a result, all those companies you normally pay are also put in trouble.
Forced to get creative
Three weeks without income? That really isn’t possible for many hospitality businesses. Quickly switch to delivery, then, many restaurants thought. Including Michelin-starred restaurant Rijks. Sander Spruijt from De Burgemeester in Linschoten is offering himself as a private chef. He’s cooking up a storm and treating you to a delicious lunch or wonderful dinner at ‘De Burgemeester level’. You’re also seeing gift vouchers appear. Buy a €100 gift voucher now that will be worth more once restaurants reopen. Or how about this initiative from restaurant Gaudi’s in Amersfoort: 20% off a gift voucher, plus, as a rare exception, they promise you a spot on the terrace.
Sometimes it works
While some hospitality friends around me are applying for unemployment benefits and self-employed workers are signing this petition because Minister Wiebes believes they chose to take this risk themselves, some hospitality businesses are luckier. A café where I occasionally work behind the bar understands that its staff (mostly people on zero-hours contracts) can’t do anything about this either, and can afford to continue paying at least the hours through April 6, in the hope that on April 7 business as usual can simply resume.
These are difficult times. But it’s good that the hospitality industry is closed. Health is the top priority right now, and then hopefully we can soon head back to the pub to spend our quarantine savings on our much-loved hospitality industry! Until then, you can already do your bit. ‘Don’t be stingy and donate to your favourite place to eat!’ You can do that here.
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