Protests, traffic curbs in Delhi hit hotel biz

INDIA bloc protest against CEC in Delhi — Delhi hotels are witnessing a wave of cancellations of corporate conferences and events amid ongoing protests and traffic restrictions

New Delhi: An otherwise busy month is turning out to be lacklustre for hotels in Delhi with properties seeing a wave of cancellations with companies cancelling conferences and events amid the ongoing protests and traffic curbs in Delhi. The F&B business also seems to have taken a hit for hotels located in Central Delhi.

Mohit Shah, general secretary of Delhi Hotel Association said average occupancies are down to around 25% for hotels in Delhi from usually expected occupancies of 75% in October.

"We were ordered by the local police stations and authorities to not provide rooms to guests who might be coming for the protests in Delhi. On being asked how we were expected to ensure that and how would we identify such guests, we were told to not provide rooms to any first-time guests who are not foreigners and are not coming with families," said Shah.

"These instructions and orders to not entertain first time guests are still in place and the hospitality sector seems to be the most impacted because of the ongoing developments," he added. Shah's own four hotels in Central Delhi are clocking occupancies of around 22% for the past four days.

Simran Sial, a member of the South Delhi Hotel Association said corporates are cancelling their events, meetings and headquarter visits due to the ongoing unrest. "This was supposed to be a good month for us from a corporate movement perspective, but we are now seeing a lot of cancellations," he added, citing the example of a conference that got cancelled at his hotel on October 10 as guests faced travel difficulties.

Bookings for conferences, events and training sessions in sectors such as pharma have been deferred and postponed for the next two weeks, said Gajesh Girdhar, chairman, governing council and founder member of the Network of Indian MICE Agents.

While room bookings have not been cancelled, the F&B and banqueting business has been hit at the Le Meridien hotel in Delhi, with sales going down by about 20-30% at restaurants, said COO Tarun Thakral. "Guests are getting inconvenienced and our lunch sales have been hit. We have also seen cancellations for banqueting events due to the blockade," he added.

Traffic curbs and security restrictions have continued in Delhi since Saturday, with protests against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar also leading to restricted metro access that continued till Monday.

According to Aditya Mishra, chief executive at CIEL HR Services, recruitment services firm, some companies (also CIEL's clients) that have employees working in their establishments in the Central Delhi region have asked them to switch to work from home or from their offices in other parts of NCR.

"Given the restrictions and long commute involved for the employees, this is a precautionary step companies have taken," Mishra said.

Another consulting firm which has a small office in central Delhi has also advised employees to work from other offices, a person familiar with the development told ET.

"As part of our existing hybrid work model, employees already have the option to work from home. Therefore, people have the discretion, in consultation with their managers, to plan their work day and location," an RPG spokesperson said.