When Lothar Wieler spoke about the corona situation at the federal press conference on November 12 of this year, his warnings were as urgent as they had been in a long time. “The fourth wave is now hitting us with full force,” said the head of the Robert Koch Institute after more than 50,000 new infections were reported the day before. “Reduce your contacts,” warned Wieler.
Ute Jacobs can remember it very well. She still has the words in her ear. The boss of Germany’s largest hotel should feel the effects immediately in the days that followed. Bookings and occupancy at the Estrel Berlin in Neukölln have risen continuously since the summer and the hotel’s employees have just almost completely returned from short-time work, the hotel has now received a flood of rejections. Half of the bookings for November and December have been canceled again. “It was really downright panicked,” says Ute Jacobs.
From 100 to 30 percent utilization in a few days
In the meantime the situation has normalized somewhat, but not really improved. “There are no new bookings,” says the Estrel boss, whose house has 1,125 rooms and 2,250 beds and was always reliably 80 percent full before the start of the pandemic. “We are now at 35 percent,” says Jacob and is glad that no lockdown has been announced. You and the guests could handle the 2G rule well, especially since the Estrel has its own test center in the hotel. Jacobs hopes that the situation will normalize somewhat in the first few months of the coming year. Until then, they fear, some of the workforce may have to be sent back to short-time work. The Estrel currently has 400 employees. In 2019 there were 520.
The Estrel is an example of the hotel industry in the city. At the Munich hotel chain Motel One, for example, which operates ten of its 75 hotels in Berlin, it can be learned that almost every third booking has been canceled in the past few days. Maximilian Hauptmann, boss of the Hotel Kastanienhof in Prenzlauer Berg, was hit harder. Until recently, his hotel was fully booked until the end of the year. Now only 30 percent of the rooms are occupied. He does not expect any improvement for the time being. “It’s going through,” he says dryly and expects a lull into April. He now fears that he will have to close the restaurant soon.
In Berlin’s official tourism agency Visit Berlin, there is now talk of “an emergency stop after a good new start in summer”. In fact, the 2021 financial year for Berlin hoteliers did not actually begin until the middle of the year. On June 11th, they were allowed to receive tourists again for the first time this year, and for most things went even better than expected. While 313,000 guests had already checked into the hotels in June, the figure had risen to 850,000 in August. In September the number of overnight stays was already 50 percent above the previous year. And while occupancy in the Berlin hotel industry in the last week of October marked the annual high with an average of 73 percent, it fell again to 47 percent in the last week of November. Everything at the beginning.
Thomas Lengfelder, regional head of the German Hotel and Restaurant Association, also speaks of “massive cancellations”. Some hotel owners have now made the voluntary decision to close over the Christmas holidays because the business is not worth it. According to Lengfelder, one in ten of Berlin’s 800 hotels has had to give up since the pandemic began. These include the Excelsior in Charlottenburger Hardenbergstraße, Ellington in Nürnberger Straße, Upstalsboom in Friedrichshain and Hecker’s Hotel am Kudamm – four of 88.
Cancellation of Green Week hits many hoteliers hard
It must be feared that the list will become even longer. The danger is particularly great in City West. Because there you are more dependent than anywhere else in the city on the formerly flourishing trade fair and conference business in the third largest congress metropolis in Europe after Paris and Lisbon. In fact, trade fair and congress visitors have so far guaranteed 40 percent of the overnight stays in Berlin.
As a result, the cancellation of the International Green Week planned for January 2022 only last week hit hoteliers hard. In 2019, Berlin’s most traditional trade fair received around 400,000 visitors, including around 85,000 trade visitors from around 75 countries. It is estimated that the hotels involved will lose at least 200,000 overnight stays if they cancel. Small consolation: The hardly smaller Fruit Logistica trade fair was postponed from January to April. For the time being.
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