Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jun 8: Hotels and restaurants in coastal Karnataka are preparing to open for customers from Monday, June 8. But medium and large-sized hotels may encounter problems if they fail to get enough number of cooking and cleaning staff at the last minute.

A few smaller hotels have been operating parcel service now but the customer response has been lackadaisical. On Monday, it is guessed, ordinary hotels and those which are dependent on a small number of workers and others where family members of owners work together may start functioning.

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The hotels have an additional worry on hand. They have to strictly follow the government guidelines and see that customers to abide by rules. They need to make arrangements for maintaining physical distance, keep track of hygiene, and dispense sanitizers. A few hotel owners have confirmed having made these arrangements.

Workers from other districts who were working for hotels here have gone back to their homes. As per expectations, they may not come back for a couple of months more. Until then, the hotels have to be run at a subdued capacity. The industry has already suffered huge losses. The hotel owners are also worried by the thin attendance in buses and are afraid that this phenomenon might hurt their prospects.

The problem of workers is acute in hotels located particularly in Udupi, Kundapur, and Karkala. Because of coronavirus scare, workers who stay far away are reluctant to travel by buses, and new workers are not coming forward. The problem is expected to ease as time passes, says Dakshina Kannada District Hotel Owners Association president, Kudpi Jagadeesh Shenoy.

Devaraj Kalladka, who was working as a supplier at Mangaluru and currently spending time at hometown, Kalladka, says that he got the call from a hotel owner to come back to work but his family is stopping him because of fear that he could contract coronavirus. He says that now he has been attending to some local jobs.