expensive bills and difficulties in managing personnel are sending the sector into crisis
On the horizon, there will be an increase in tariffs and a halt to the renovation works. Are full board and all inclusive in danger of disappearing?
The biggest concerns today for hoteliers: in the immediate future, surviving the increase in energy costs, in the future, that Italian families can still afford the “luxury” of going on vacation.
Price competition will increase: some are counting on the low, while the majority will raise their rates, avoid structural work and cut staff. This is the picture that emerges from the anonymous questionnaire addressed by the info-alberghi.com portal to hoteliers on the Romagna Riviera.
At the beginning of October, Info Alberghi Srl, owner of the hotel promotion portal www.info-alberghi.com, launched an anonymous questionnaire to subscribers to probe the perception of hoteliers on the hottest events of the moment and learn about the reactions and strategies put in place. field to overcome the current criticalities. The satisfaction for the presence on the Riviera in the past summer season is accompanied by a scenario dominated by just leaving for the future. War in Ukraine, political instability, energy crisis, increase in the cost of raw materials and difficulties in managing personnel in hotels hinder the planning of the sector and impose choices that go in the direction of a regression, such as the reduction of personal work and the procrastination of renovation.
SEASON 2022: GOOD NUMBERS BUT STAFF A NIGHTMARE
The balance of the season just passed was good for almost everyone: when asked about the degree of satisfaction with the attendances in the summer of 2022, 46% felt “very satisfied”, 41% were “quite satisfied”, 5% even unbalances and responds “very much”, while only 7% feel “not very satisfied”.
Problematic, however, is the management of personnel, from the recruitment of collaborators to hiring to the maintenance of the employment relationship. For 44% of them this management was not “at all” easy, for 26% it was “not” easy and for 22% it was “enough”. Only 6% found personnel management “easy”.
But it is the rising cost of electricity that is most worrying. In this sense, the responses on the measures taken this year to stop the price increases arrived at the start of the season are interesting, with estimates and reservations already largely concluded. Someone, in fact, specifies: “Unfortunately, the increase in the number of users has already arrived when many already confirmed and contracts especially with agencies already stipulated by 2021”.
Despite this, 63.5% increased their prices, 63.5% reduced the number of offers, but there are also those who paid for some services that were offered for free (18.3%) or who closed early (13.5%). 14.4% did nothing. Someone declares to have implemented the treatment of only overnight stay and there are those who wish to in the near future: “Full board and all inclusive are no longer sustainable. (…) The difficulty in finding staff, and the subject of raw materials have brought the most emblematic of Romagna treatments to its knees. We should go back and sell accommodation and meals separately; especially by virtue of the fact that stays are getting shorter and shorter. ” And again: “We should eliminate full board, it would be a dream”.
A LOOK ON THE FUTURE: INCREASE IN PRICES AND A CLOSE TO RENOVATIONS
While many reacted to the high season by stopping the racing situation as best they could, now it’s time to talk about possible strategies for the future. And it is precisely about the future that the deepest concerns will emerge: the intention to increase prices, indicated by 70% of hoteliers, is accompanied by that of giving up renovations (28.2%) or doing without one or more collaborators (9.7%). There are also those who will leave everything as it is (14.6%) and those who will react by installing energy saving systems (14.6%).
In fact, when asked if they have thought of green measures as a possible help to lower costs, 42.7% say that yes, they have thought about it and are evaluating some interventions, 21.4% admit that it could be a solution but to have not going to invest in these things while you feel satisfied. Only 5% have never thought about it and 2% are sure it doesn’t work.
Along with the effort of dealing with a bill, there is also another aspect that does not leave indifferent and it is the long period of moment of crisis. And another: “the increase in users will close many small and medium-sized businesses, so there will be far fewer requests to dramatically increase the competition to grab tourists who will have the opportunity to take a vacation”.
On the possible exasperation of competition, two thought rates are outlined: on the one hand there are those who would like to continue to see in the proverbial lowlands of Romagna a tourist attraction and write “I am confident that in Romagna we have the lowest prices in Italy in proportion to services offered, therefore I hope that more tourists here than elsewhere ”. On the other hand, the majority hopes to get out of the crisis by stopping to play downward with tariffs and putting any attempt at unfair competition in the corner. The solution, therefore, would be “Sell at the right price, do not sell off the territory, to the detriment of the service offered” and again “I would like not to have to increase prices, but increase them by giving value to my product.”
“We absolutely must never have more hoteliers who sell their rooms at SHAME prices they are bad managers, we all make up for the quality of tourists … and redevelop hotels, we must develop tourism in the hinterland that we absolutely do not value having tourists 12 months a year. “
Finally, as regards the confidence that the new government can bring an improvement for the tourism sector, the majority (35%) expresses a cautious pessimism replies “Maybe, but I doubt it”, 31.1% replies “I don’t know but I’m confident ”, 21.4% replied“ I don’t think so ”. Only 7.8% are convinced that there will be an improvement, while 3% categorically exclude it.
The comment of the mayor of Rimini Jamil Sadegholvaad: “If we consider the photograph reported by Istat referring to arrivals and presences in Rimini from January to August 2022, in the first 8 months of this year we are almost back to normal: we have not achieved the historical results of 2019, but in quantitative terms we are close. The balance is therefore positive in quantitative terms and without the expensive bills it would have been positive also in qualitative terms, considering the margins of companies. The surge in energy costs has eroded earnings, but this fact cannot be answered with fear by being closed. The redevelopment of hotel facilities is one of the main challenges that we will face along the path that will lead Rimini to regain the markets. In recent years, the public has invested heavily in the redevelopment of the city, the entrepreneurs have done the same, but more can be done. There are hotels with few rooms, out of the market. Government help is essential. We look forward to measures from Rome and to the new new objectives that we have asked to direct the 110% bonus to hotel construction. Among the hotel redevelopment interventions that improve the tourist offer, the growing need for the production of electricity from renewable sources must also be taken into account more and more by tourist activities “.
Press release
Infohotels