Hotels are moving to the concept of self-isolation

The coronavirus pandemic has brought a new trend to the hotel industry: long-term renting rooms for “self-isolation.”

The way of such transformation has already gone hotels in Moscow and the region, as well as St. Petersburg.

Vadim Prasov, vice-president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of the Russian Federation, reports that many hotels have already gone this way.

A number of hotels, however, abandon this method of survival, as they understand that it is largely a dead end.

One of the first to introduce such a concept hotel "Helvetia" (St. Petersburg). Rooms and suites - at the price of renting an apartment, the lease period is from 30 to 60 days. The cost of accommodation includes the usual set of hotel services and daily breakfasts.

Hoteliers of Moscow confirm that measures are taken not for income, but to stay afloat in a crisis. Experts do not exclude that many accommodation facilities generally rent numbers “at cost”.

“All we’re doing right now is trying to somehow get to the new reality ... a lot of hotels just won’t make it to X Hour.” Look at what is happening: in general, in popular Russian tourist regions, hotel occupancy for April is still at around 5%. Moscow and St. Petersburg will certainly receive more - about 30-40%, in particular, at the expense of business tourists. We are now counting on the assistance of the State.”

The main problems of hoteliers, with whom they turn to the state, are tax relief (tax holidays - not deferral - for the hotel sector up to six months), VAT reduction, compensation for the wage fund, preferential credit conditions.

Source: iz