JOHOR BARU: The management of hotels here breathed a sigh of relief over the government's lifting of restrictions on dining-in, which has provided a fillip to sales.
Mahadi Mathana, general manager of Impiana Hotel in Senai, welcomed the move as a "huge relief" even though dine-ins were limited to two persons per table.
"At Impiana, we are known for our buffet lunch. But due to SOPs (standard operating procedures) we could not have buffets, so our managers came up with an 'All You Can Eat' package and the response has been very good," he said.
Mahadi said, normally, Chinese New Year celebrations at his hotel come in two parts.
The first is before the actual reunion dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year.
"Our restaurants (also) enjoy about three weeks of company dinners. These dinners are called 'Sau Gong' dinners. This year there was a complete void," said Mahadi.
He said the late announcement of the lifting of the ban on dining-in could only come in useful for Valentine's Day dining.
"Normally, we have romantic set-ups and sumptuous set-dinners and buffets. This year was a little different where we advertised a pre-and post-Valentine's Day western set dinner together with a room and breakfast package.
"The response was encouraging but not fantastic. To get the maximum value we extended this Valentine Day's offer for a week," he said.
Mahadi said the main source of revenue for hotels is from room sales.
"Here we are far from being normal. For nearly a year all staff have been going through a 15 per cent to 35 per cent salary deduction. At Impiana, we are a little lucky because none of our staff was told to leave."
Mahadi stressed that if the hospitality and tourism industry does not think out of the box many hotels will be forced to shut down.
"I hope this will never come to pass because thousands of hotel staff will be without jobs," he sighed.
Pulai Springs Resort general manager Sunny Soo said the dining-in for two rule was not expansive enough to allow for families to avail themselves of the reunion dinner facilities at the resort.
"At reunion dinners, families don't like to sit at separate tables. We had to rely on our food delivery business during Chinese New Year as the allowance for dining-in for two persons was not practical for families," he said.
For Valentine's Day, however, Pulai Springs was able to do last-minute promotions and managed to obtain several bookings.
"Because of such a short promotion time, we assume we are unable to get as many couples as we could compare to last year."
"As for room occupancy, if there is no interstate travel, and with the 10km-raidus travel restriction, the business won't be able to pick up as much as we want to.
"We have to adjust to the conditions and re-look at open our doors to neighbouring country, especially those where vaccination has been successfully done.
"Meanwhile, we hope the government would be a little bit more flexible and allow dining-up for more than two persons per table," said Soo.
Sutha Menon, advertising and promotions manager of GBW Hotel, said there has been an increase in demand at her hotel for dining-in facilities.
"Response to our Valentine's Day promotion was encouraging," she said.
She stressed that many people prefer dining-in to takeaways and urged the government to be a little more lenient by allowing more than two to a table.
She said it is not practical when a large table accommodates only two persons who are seated 2m apart.
"We received reservations for dine-in and in-room dining as well. With social media playing a part, this has helped the hotel in terms of publicity in bringing in the crowd," she said.