New measures are the last straw: hundreds of hospitality businesses can no longer open
Miserable news: since the new coronavirus measures came into effect last weekend, requiring all hospitality businesses to close at eight o’clock in the evening, hundreds of establishments have had to keep their doors closed. There is simply no way to make it work anymore, several hospitality entrepreneurs say.
We assume these problems are occurring across the country: in Amsterdam alone, hundreds of the more than six thousand hospitality businesses kept their doors closed because it is impossible to come up with adequate solutions.
The last straw
A spokesperson for Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) confirmed this following reporting by Het Parool. The reasons may vary somewhat, but the closures that so many entrepreneurs cannot avoid are mainly caused by staff shortages and the additional coronavirus measures.
Who still wants to
Many hospitality workers have stopped doing this work themselves as a precaution, so they would not have to wait for another forced dismissal. It is therefore incredibly difficult for businesses to retain staff, and checking QR codes also requires an additional employee.
Everyone’s doing dunch
Restaurants sometimes have a little more leeway, because many guests are perfectly happy to eat a little earlier. Some restaurants have already called this ‘dunch’: eating and drinking between the usual lunch and dinner hours. But working in a club or party café with mandatory table seating, and then raising the roof between five and eight in the evening—that obviously isn’t going to work.
What happens next
According to KHN Amsterdam, all the new rules make it unviable for hundreds of hospitality businesses to generate even a little turnover. These rules will remain in force until December 4. Hope is now pinned on an easing through a so-called ‘walk-in model’: a possible rule under which ‘new’ people may no longer enter after 8:00 p.m., while those already inside can remain seated. Demissionary Minister of Justice Ferd Grapperhaus has submitted this request from the Dutch hospitality sector to the OMT for advice.
In the meantime, this sector is being offered remarkably little perspective, and with all our hospitality-loving hearts, we wish them all the support and perseverance…
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Source: Misset, Het Parool
