How Hotel Industries are affected by Corona Virus(Covid-19) and Nationwide Lock down in India?
It’s hard to believe that we all have
to go through this punishing current situation caused by COVID 19 in the year 2020.
One of the most devastating outbreaks to the mankind which was originated from Wuhan
city of China, in December 2019, has already destroyed the livelihood of four
hundred thousand of people and the numbers of cases are exponentially increasing
worldwide day by day. When WHO had officially declared Spread of Corona-virus a
Pandemic disease, many of the companies had already started planning and
executing the better options to operate for instance, Work from Home, taking
precautionary measures for the employees who are must to go office.
Even though, every Pharmaceutical
companies are working day and night to find the vaccines/medicines to combat
this disease, none is successful so far. With the belief that- Something is
better than Nothing and Prevention is better than Cure, WHO provided the
guidelines to at least adopt preventive measures to wear N95 or equivalent masks
all the time, maintain Social distance, wash hands regularly and eat balanced
diet that boosts immunity.
With the emergence of corona virus
cases on 30 January 2020 in Kerala and with the implementation of Lockdown 1st
from 24 March 2020, thousands of companies in India started to be in a
panicking situation as they knew that it would result the companies in the
great loss. Amongst the numerous industries, the most effected industry is the
Hotel Industry which contributes 10 % of National GDP Of India.
Among
the countless Hotels in India, few Branded Hotels renounce in India are:
4)
LemonTree
6)
TheOberoi
Taking only the examples of above hotels
we could figure out the facts that Millions of employees are dependent on these
companies. For many people, these companies can be the dream company they
wished to work for and get associated with.
Like any other industries, Hotel industry in
India was Booming with the high demand of every services like room
accommodations,transportation restaurants, bakery, bar, spa etc. Before 2020, most of the
hotels were even doing full house occupancy throughout the months. Pay scale
was increasing for all employees based on the revenue of the hotel. Looking at high
demand of the people to opt the various services in hotel, this industry was
able to lure many new employees to join to different levels in different
departments. Hotel Industry is only the Industry where all the levels of
individuals are eligible to get hired.
This industry has versatile platforms
to work with. Let me brief out some of the most common level of departments
with the features and eligibility criteria that help every categories of people
to make a decent living:
Employee recruited in Utility
Department basically deals with cleaning of kitchen and utensils. Even though
kitchen in the Hotel is the vital area to satisfy the customers, employee for
this profile doesn’t seek for much qualification. Anybody who is well groomed
and can maintain professional discipline can carry out this job. Maintaining Personal
hygiene and proper sanitation by the employees are only the requirements to
recruit for this department.
One of the most important department
which plays the major role to prosper the Hotel Industry is the Safety and
Security. Even this department doesn’t ask for highly educated employee but
only look for the basic qualification of an individual. Bravery, Basic
Education and Basic command over the language is mandate in this profile.
3)
Housekeeping
Employee who are humble, have good
sense of responsibility, good command over preferred language and other basic
etiquettes are enough to be hired in this department. 10th or 12th standard
Pass is enough to be qualified for this profile. On the Job training will be
provided by the managerial level in the Hotel to maintain the dignity of the
Hotel which again is the most importation section of this industry.
Every kind of people can join this
job. Basic knowledge about gardening is what a person requires for this profile.
This job also doesn’t ask for degree certificate in gardening to be recruited.
Likewise,
other numerous departments are there which everybody knows like:
Front
office, FNB, Accounts, Sales and Marketing, Administrations and Operations, IT,
Engineering and Purchase departments.
These departments obviously pay much attention and follow recruitment criteria to
hire the people as they require a qualified and professional candidate.
Qualification of Degree and above with some experience in the related field is mandatory
in order to be selected for these profiles.
Hence, It’s the best industry to work
for, if you are keen to expand the networks, grow interpersonal relationships
in other various industries. This industry was not only the bread and butter
for many people but also a committed industry to improve the lifestyle of the
employee.
With the ongoing growth of the
industry, many owners started investing in real estate to open up new
properties or franchising the company in order to expand their business. Whereas
employees also had started to improve their standard of living like buying
properties e.g.: house, cars or buying different investment plans in EMI or
taking personal loans. But all of Sudden! who knew that everyone had to face
this inevitable situation? When many deadly viruses like HIV, SARS, MERS and
Ebola outbroke in the different parts of world and made thousands of deaths, science
was able to control them and life of the people was not as scary as it is now.
We heard that third world war will be without the use of any weapons, now I
somehow realize that it was not a joke. Globally, Life of Every individual is
in stake, every part of the world has been shattered due to Novel Corona Virus.
Indian markets and Hotel Industries were not much affected by the emergence of Corona virus till December 2019. After a month, the issue became so serious that
government declared total lock down in the country.
The outbreak of Covid-19 was first in
Wuhan city of China in December 2019. At first, it was declared as Public
Health Emergency of International Concern on 30th January 2020 but
later WHO declared it as pandemic on 11 March 2020. In India, first case was registered
on 30 January 2020 in Kerala from a student who had record of travel history
from Wuhan, China. India was least affected till then, suddenly the confirmed
cases with corona virus increased tremendously after mass gathering of approx.
5000 people including foreigners who had attended
the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi which
was held in mid- march 2020. Now to prevent the country from further cases,
government of India was bound to announce a voluntary curfew for 14 hours on 22
March 2020 followed by Nation lock down on 24 March 2020.
Now the real
battlement had started for all the companies as How to take care of the
employees? In this situation, the most screwed industry is the hotel industry
where they have to face the great loss. I tried to brief out the effect of Covid-19 and Lockdown in
Hotel Industry in India.
1) Lockdown-1: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced 1st Nationwide lockdown in India on 24 march
2020 to 14 April 2020 (for 21 days). During this initial phase of lockdown,
Employees started to work from home. Salary was paid to every employee since
the hotel had backups to pay for thousands of staffs for at least one month.
But unfortunately, Hotel occupancy rate was drastically decreased since
lockdown as movements of people were totally stopped. Thinking that business
would bounce back, the company started making comeback plans, engaging
employees in alternative ways of working, only taking care of the inhouse guests
but the situation was even worse.
2) Lockdown-2: 2nd
Nationwide lockdown was extended from 14 April 2020 to 3 May 2020 (for 20
days). The situation was even more terrified when the few Hotels were compelled
to follow government’s order to converted Hotels into Quarantine centers as the
number of positive cases of Covid-19 was inclining the Graff to the peak level.
Revenues in every hotel were decreased to the single percentage. The owners
were unable to support their staff. So, many hotels started to force the staffs
to take unpaid leaves whereas, for the staffs who were still working were
managing their family with 20 to 40% of salary cut. This might be the 1st
time in the history of hotel industry where they raised their hands to take the
responsibility of their employees. We can understand Hotels that they had to
cope up with the deep loss as they had to run the hotel with the handful of
inhouse guests who were again impelled to stay in the hotel.
3) Lockdown- 3: Lockdown 2 further
extended to lockdown-3 from 3 May 2020 to 17 May 2020 for another 15 days. This
was actually the crucial time for Hotel industry to survive in the market. The
owners of big, renounced and branded Hotels were still optimistic towards the
situation, they were never despair, So, they were still trying to revive the
industry with Plan B or Plan C. Optimistic employer changed the strategies and
started to implement new ideas like conducting webinars with all top corporates
in order to function smoothly and aggressively once they bounce back in future.
Even the employees of the top hotels were equally at risk of losing job who
were in probationary period, many were jobless, few were managing with 40 to 60
to even 70% of salary cut or few might have given voluntary resignations.
However, the Scenario was, they still had supported their staffs for minimum of
3 months but hundreds of thousands of Stand-Alone Hotels had the opposite
scene. These Hotels for whom thousands of people sacrificed many things, gave
their sweat and blood for years together were laid off, unable to pay even
single penny from the 1st day of lockdown itself. Various Hotels
were shut down because they couldn’t fight with this tough time and had already
lost their hope. This duration was really catastrophic for every hotelier as
there was no sign of any positive news in any ways. This 3rd
nationwide lockdown had made every individual so scared that they were
frightened to receive the call from office assuming that it might be the
goodbye call from their job.
4) Lockdown- 4: With enormous
increase in the corona virus cases in India, the number of lockdown days in the
nation were also increasing. Nationwide Lockdown further extended till 30 May
2020. Hotel industry was totally drowned by this time but hats up to all those
hotels who could sustain and didn’t let go the hands of their staffs during
these circumstances. Lockdow-4 was announced with some reliefs and relaxations
as Hotels in the safe zone were permitted to open restaurants and carry out the
sales with online orders and home delivery. However, this idea was also not up
to the expectation as public were not ready to allow outside food and outsider
in their premises. But at-least something was better than nothing.
We obviously
need to salute and praise to those hoteliers as many hotels were still operating
to serve the guests who were stuck in the hotels. Salute to those hotels who also
served the people in need by distributing free food during continuous
lockdowns. Salute to those hotels who helped the nation by converting hotels
into quarantine centers by strictly following WHO guidelines. Being Hotelier is
not a cup of tea for any ordinary people. This job comes with ample challenges
where they have to forget their family life, forget one’s personal time table
and have to be pro-active and alert round the clock. This industry might be
considered as a business-oriented sector in many ways but we also cannot deny
the fact that, it is not only the bread and butter for millions of employees
but a place to fulfill every kinds of personal or business requirements for billions
of individual and millions of other
companies all over the globe.
To Conclude my views: Hotel Industry who have submerged with the great loss, have
neither given up till now nor will give up in future. COVID 19 might last for
some more months together, it will again stand as it used to be. It will of
course, find the way to generate the business, increase revenues and become
stable sooner or later. This Industry will obviously bounce back and again
become the backbone of the nation. This will again become the pride of the
country once the movement of the people starts, once the companies start to
operate. WE SHALL OVERCOME SOON.
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