It was easy to be a law-abiding resident of Paris this week if you had young children, where it was polite of president Macron to have mentioned the 9pm to 6am curfew but really, those regularly treading on Lego would never have noticed.
The announcement was made in a much-trailed evening announcement - the first big event for Manu since June - where his staycation tan could be admired as he was challenged as to his decision making by two journalists. Set piece no doubt, but questions were raised about the impact of the curfew, which is set to run for four weeks, on hospitality. No problem, said M. Macron, the state would revive the fully-paid furlough scheme, with 90% of wages paid by the state for hotels
He appreciated, he said, that hospitality was at the very heart of the French way of life and needed to be protected. Of course how the residents of Paris and eight other cities will cope having to eat early bird specials is another matter, but not a question for our earnest-faced leader.
Meanwhile in the UK a confused public was dealing with a traffic-light system which featured no traffic lights, with three tiers starting at medium. With even GCSE maths featuring some statistical visualisation one starts to wonder what the government got up to during their school days, but best stay away from that rabbit hole.
And while a schism was reopening along the north/south divide, there was also one developing within hospitality, as hotels found themselves left out of the financial support offered by chancellor Rishi Sunak. This is not to start popping the champagne corks about the new jobs scheme, which has not been enthusiastically greeted. A system which only pays out when a venue is forced to closed but doesn’t take into account freaking out the public and putting them off their dinner in Tier Two is not going to be a winner. But for hotels, it was no scheme at all.
Under the new job support scheme, from 1 November the government will support businesses in the UK that have to close as a result of local or national coronavirus restrictions by paying 67% of the wages of any employees who cannot work (up to a maximum of £2,100 a month).
However, according to a note released to clients by CMS: “Although most businesses can remain open in these regions for the time being, the prohibition on households mixing indoors may, particularly for many parts of the hospitality sector, mean that staying open is not a viable option. These businesses will not however be covered under the new Job Support Scheme if they close as they are not ‘legally’ required to do so.” So in Tier Three, where pubs and restaurants are required to close but hotels are not, no payment (with the exception of F&B staff if rules over booze with a meal can’t be met).
So hotels will once again be forced to try to attract key workers, professional sports teams, journalists, people who have business in a plague zone or leisure travellers with a passion for the zombie apocalypse. Hotels now find themselves in that least hospitable of locations; gasping for breath in a deadzone. There is no OTA category for how to frame that, nor any loyalty bonus which can help fill a room such an area. Even hitting breakeven is quite an ask. The alternative is shutting down, which, for many, will be the only option.
This will be grist to the mill of those vultures standing on the side waiting for carrion, as the winter comes even sooner than anticipated to the UK. The term ‘viable job’ popped into the vernacular after Sunak announced his job support scheme, and although he wouldn’t be drawn on what that might mean, he did say: "I believe it is right thing to do to concentrate that support on jobs that have a genuine prospect, of being viable and providing long-term security for those employees. The way we can do that is through the test where employees have to working a minimum amount of time and that wasn't the feature of the furlough scheme where people could be at home the entire time. That's a change in this scheme and that's the way to think about viability.”
It turns out that hotels don’t pass the viable test, which is kind of kooky given that the industry generated over £73bn of Gross Value Added directly to the UK economy, and a further £87bn indirectly in 2016. This has not been missed by the investors on the sidelines, who are likely to find themselves picking up some very viable businesses for an absolute song.
To support the call for a minister representing hospitality in the UK, follow this link. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/552201
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