Hotel and conference chain Postillion closed all nine branches in the Netherlands on Wednesday, reports NRC. Due to the new corona measures, it is no longer profitable for the chain to keep the hotels in the Netherlands open.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday that cafés and restaurants in the Netherlands must close for the next four weeks, but made an exception for hotels. Postillion, however, mainly depends on the business market for income. Because the advice to work from home as much as possible is back in force, the hotels are doing badly.
Bookings have been declining since the tightening of the measures on 28 September. “We already decided at that time that it would make no sense to remain open with further intensification. The business meeting is our only right to exist. If we fall below a certain occupancy rate, we better close temporarily,” says Postillion director Eric-Jan Ginjaard. NRC.
In the spring, Postillion also closed for more than two months. This resulted in the scrapping of a third of the 350 jobs in total. The organization is now in order, according to the director. There would be enough buffers to survive the second wave of the coronavirus.
The turnover for this year will be considerably lower than last year, when a turnover of 40 million euros was achieved. “More than 65 percent below that, I now estimate”, Ginjaard told the newspaper. The director also expects profit before tax to decrease by 10 million euros. “That is considerable, but by intervening in time I have the feeling that we have regained control and can therefore choose to close the hotels ourselves.”
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