We, too, want extended hours, say hoteliers

A restaurant in Dadar East prepares to open in June this year. File pic

Following in the footsteps of traders, who have demanded relaxations in operating hours, hoteliers too want extended hours and permission to remain open on weekends.

The Hotels and Restaurants Association (Western India) [HRAWI] has put forward their demands and the problems they have been facing due to the lockdown before the chief minister and sought some relaxations.

The association claimed that over 40 per cent of the restaurants and hotels in the state had permanently shut down and there was a lot of uncertainty over when to open, when to close, which days to remain open, how much staff was required and what kind of inventory to maintain as the rules keep changing. It said that the uncertainty was putting tremendous pressure on the businesses and was doing more harm than good.

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Currently, restaurants can operate at half capacity for half a day and only on weekdays. With no specific relief or stimulus from the state government, the industry continues to suffer, claimed the association. The hoteliers have demanded that they be allowed to operate from 7 am to 12.30 am (as per their licence time) and also on weekends. Currently, the operational time for hotels and restaurants is 7 am to 4 pm on weekdays only.

Speaking to mid-day, Pradeep Shetty, vice president of HRAWI, said, "In the pre-pandemic days, a restaurant's lunch-hour business accounted for just 15 to 20 per cent of the entire day's revenue. On weekends, this would rise to about 30 to 35 per cent. But now, with a majority of people working from home, there is not much business during the day and on weekends we are not allowed to open. Essentially, we have been allowed to operate in an environment that makes only bad business sense. We, therefore, request that this condition be removed immediately and restaurants be allowed to operate as per their licence timings and also on weekends."