The General Manager of the Marriott Worsley hotel has spoken about how the continued lockdown measures are impacting hotel life.
The Marriott Worsley Park Hotel and Country Club was one of the first hotels in the Marriott chain to gradually reopen on July 4, only to have to close its golf and leisure facilities again due to the second lockdown.
Derek Harvey, who has been at the hotel for eight years, said: “We’re just trying to take it a day, a week at a time.”
The hotel has 12 different departments which are currently running at 90 per cent less staff than usual.
Despite help from the furlough scheme, it has unfortunately not been enough to prevent redundancies.
Mr Harvey added: “The saddest thing is losing people who have worked with the business for so long.
“I’ve been in business for a long time, but I’ve never had to make decisions like these.”
The manager has put the hotels ability to simply remain open this year down to local support.
“We get a lot of local people who use the hotel, especially golf and leisure. If we didn’t think there was enough local demand we would have had to close.”
Under current guidelines though, the hotels three restaurants, spa and fitness facilities have all had to close their doors once again.
This has left the hotel reliant on sports teams, who are still permitted to travel for their “away” games.
Across the globe, Marriott Hotels are following the “The Marriott Commitment to Clean Programme”, which has strict rules in order to allow guests to “Travel With Confidence During Covid-19”.
Mr Harvey also spoke of his confusion regarding the idea that the golf course cannot open for members under the current lockdown rules, despite being the first of the hotel’s facilities deemed safe enough to reopen in the summer.
Walks on the course are permitted however, which often means there are more people on the course than there would be during a game of golf.
“The only difference is you don’t have a club in your hand,” he said.
This issue was debated in parliament and it was decided by the government that golf courses can reopen when lockdown eases in December, England Golf confirmed on Twitter.
Golf is back on Wednesday 2 December….. more details to follow pic.twitter.com/bHEFF0U7gN
— England Golf (@EnglandGolf) November 23, 2020
Mr Harvey, pictured below, also discussed the reasons behind his decision to cancel the usual Christmas and New Year celebrations.
After experiencing a rise in demand after the first lockdown, Mr Harvey is optimistic that business will get back to normal for the hotel as soon as it is safe to do so.
He said: “I don’t think there has been a business that hasn’t been touched. There are no winners, sadly.
“When things like this happen you realise what you had before.”
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