The hotel industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic according to the Charlottetown-based D.P. Murphy Group of Companies which operates seven hotels in New Brunswick.
CEO Jeff Appleton says revenues have dropped by 75 percent over the last year and the occupancy rate was a mere 10 percent in January alone.
The company has been forced to close some hotels and layoff hundreds of employees.
Appleton says the bills certainly don’t go away even if the guests do.
Hotels have huge fixed costs such as debt service, insurance and property taxes which he adds can be as much as $500,000 per property and are especially high in New Brunswick.
If it wasn’t for support from the federal government, he says the hotel industry would be dead by now.
Appleton would like to see more support from the New Brunswick government noting how more provincial support has come from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
He says hotels have not begun to recover yet and are not ready to bring back employees due to ongoing lockdowns and travel restrictions.
Appleton was one of several speakers at this week’s Recovery Road Summit hosted by the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton.
