Drafted As Quarantine Centres, Punjab Hotels Stare At Losses, "Stigma"

The government decision to offer their hotels as quarantine centres to Non-Resident Indian (NRI) evacuees has their left hotel owners in Punjab fighting a dual battle-of financial losses and the stigma of having operated as a coronavirus quarantine centre.

"Hotels in Amritsar, Ludhiana or other cities which have kept people in quarantine are concerned about the future business prospect. When things normalizes, even then people will avoid booking rooms in hotels which were arranged as quarantine centres as the government has put a poster outside the hotel mentioning the same," said Amarvir Singh, a hotelier in the industrial city of Ludhiana.

With 20,000 people expected to return in coming days, including 3,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRI), the Punjab government has arranged for approximately 7,000 hotel and institutional rooms across districts.

This is in addition to the free, langar-style quarantine facilities for those who cannot afford to pay for hotel rooms, which are in the range of Rs 1,000 a day to Rs 7,500 a day.

"Hotels have been arranged in each district. Hotels were lying unused so it will give them some business as well. Deputy commissioners negotiated with hoteliers so people can be quarantined there. Food will be provided at a basic minimum rate," state secretary of NRI Affairs Rahul Bhandari said.

However, only a handful of the 1,300 Punjabis evacuated have booked hotel rooms for quarantine. Most said they were engaged in menial jobs abroad and have opted for the free facility.

"It is worrying; not many NRIs are opting for these paid facilities. Turning hotels into hospitals (quarantine centres) has only led to losses," Bathinda-based hotelier Satish Arora said, adding that they have to follow a stringent set of sanitization measures.

"There have been no bookings in last 12 days. This wait is getting endless and it's burdening us financially. Moreover, the new rules to run hotels are so stringent that we can't do business. One such guideline is that if an occupant escapes the quarantine hotel (before 14 days), then a case under IPC Section 188 will be registered against us," a representative of the Punjab hotel owners' association, Satish Arora, said.

Hoteliers now demand that the state and central governments announce a special economic package to help them tide over this crisis. Many sectors, hospitality chief among them, have reported job losses because of the nationwide lockdown that started March 25. The sector said sources of revenue had started drying up much before the lockdown as countries had started imposing travel restrictions.