Hotels in B.C. asking for clear communication from the province in 2022

Industries across the board faced new struggles in 2021, from extreme weather to fluctuating COVID-19 cases and health restrictions.

The hotel industry is one of them, and it was hit hard. This time of year would regularly be their most profitable period, but in 2021, they’re struggling through the holidays.

Ingrid Jarrett is the President and CEO of the BC Hotel Association. She says areas that are surrounded by “winter wonderlands” such as Whistler and the Kootenays are usually bustling around Christmas, and are likely doing the better than their counterparts.

“There are some communities like Invermere or Fairmont that do quite well, but I can tell you in the last 10 days, millions and millions of dollars of cancellations have occurred,” she said.

Some of those cancelations came from sports teams whose events were called off. Meetings and conferences were also nixed.

Specifically, the province banned Christmas and New Year’s parties, weddings, funerals, sporting events, and other mass gatherings as Omicron cases climbed.

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Many travelers also decided not to go on their holiday trips after the restrictions were announced, further impacting hotel revenue.

“All their fixed costs remain and have increased over the last two years since the pandemic, and on average, hotels have lost somewhere between 40 and 60, sometimes 70 per cent of historic revenue. You can’t stay in business when that is happening,” said Jarrett.

Another element she’s considering is getting hotel employees back to work. She stresses the importance of wage and rent subsidies for organizations losing revenue due to provincial restrictions. Without the passing of federal Bill C-2, she says “we would have seen many, many, many hotels go out of business.”

Jarrett adds the BC Hotel Association has been working with the provincial government to figure out how hotels can be supported through this revenue loss.

“I am very, very hopeful that we will have an announcement early in the new year,” she said. “My hope is that, in January, when these restrictions are lifted, we can come out with messaging that really assures our public that it is safe to travel.”