The BunkHaus hostel and Uptowner cafe.
The UpTowner and BunkHaus are adjusting to the reality of doing business in a pandemic. The BunkHaus Hostel is planning to reopen this week, while The UpTowner cafe reopened last Friday.
“It’s really hard with the hostel not having tourism, obviously,” said owner Ingrid Woodhouse. “I know other hotels have been really, really struggling, it’s going to be wait-and-see what the summer brings, see how well the cafe does and see when borders reopen.”
Ingrid Woodhouse on The Uptowner’s summer porch (Image: submitted)
The hostel’s private rooms will continue to operate as normal while social distancing will be implemented in the dorm bunk room. Woodhouse says the dorm room will have eight bunk beds instead of the regular 16.
“We’re also going to be closing down the kitchens, so that won’t be an option for travelers unfortunately but then we do have the cafe if they’re looking for food and drinks,” Woodhouse said.
The uncertainty over when the borders will reopen is the biggest worry facing the BunkHaus. The majority of the hostel’s guests have been from Quebec, Ontario and New England.
“We obviously don’t want cases here, but it’s been frustrating to see the government isn’t letting people in with testing or finding a way to make it work,” she said. “It’s just been a hard “NO” without trying to see how we can make it work.”
Until then the cafe will be the business bringing in most of the revenue.
Cafe patrons enjoying the summer day (Image: submitted)
“In the past it has been fifty-fifty,” Woodhouse said. “Fifty per cent of revenue from the cafe and fifty per cent from the hostel. So now it will just be hoping that the cafe will do better than before to help compensate for losing the hostel. That’s why I was so quick to get at my patio ready, try to make it cozy but with distancing and trying to nail the fine line between distance and coziness.”
The cafe has doubled their beer options, now with eight beers on tap, and expanded their menu with more baked goods, smoothies, soup and bagels.
“I’ve been surprised by how many people are ready to come back to normal and enjoy being out again,” said Woodhouse, “It’s been really encouraging to see.”
This story was originally published on Huddle.Today – an Acadia Broadcasting Limited content partner.
