Mumbai, Jul 8 (PTI) Even as the Maharashtra government has allowed hotels to reopen from Wednesday, with travel restrictions still in place and a lot of hotel staff unavailable, the initial phase after re-opening is likely to remain subdued, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) said.

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The association expects only about 25 to 40 per cent of the hotels across the state to re-open in the first week, which may go up to 70 per cent in a month from now, HRAWI said in a statement.

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"The decision to allow hotels to re-open has brought the industry a big relief and we thank the Maharashtra government for it. Our member hotels are geared up to welcome guests and have been prepared for over a couple of months with the training provided to them based on government standard operating procedure (SOPs)," HRAWI President Gurbaxish Singh Kohli said.

Hotels have served people from the Day 1 of the lockdown by way of feeding the needy and providing rooms for the quarantined and health workers, he said.

"At the moment, we are just glad that the stagnation has ended and things will begin to move. We have also made a strong case for restaurants to open too and hopefully sooner than later, we will be allowed to do so," Kohli added.

HRAWI vice president Pradeep Shetty said that many hotels are facing shortage of staff and are also low on working capital.

"This will be the biggest challenge for hotels as they open doors to their guests. So, our estimate is that only about 30-35 per cent of the total hotels in the state may immediately re-open and others will gradually join. There are many hotels which have been very hard hit and these may not re-open at all or even if they do, it will take some time. We expect roughly around 70 per cent of the hotels to resume operations in the near future,” Shetty added.

On the back of travel restrictions, HRAWI has expressed apprehension about actual bookings that hotels might receive.

With most offices also adopting the work from home (WFH) policy and with people gatherings not allowed, it anticipates the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) segment and corporate bookings to be almost nil.

The Association has expressed hope that the government will consider increasing the limit of 33 per cent capacity if signs are encouraging.

Meanwhile, HRAWI is persuading the government to allow restaurants to re-open as they are the only option outside of home for several working class people employed in the essential services.

“Hospitality was the first industry to get hit and most unfortunately, it will be the last to recover. However, we remain optimistic about the future. As bookings begin to trickle in, we will be able to instill confidence in our guests, which we hope will encourage other guests to check-in. When this happens, we will seek the government's permission to increase the present capacity of 33 per cent,” Kohli added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)