RE-OPENING OF RESTAURANTS WITH DINE-IN - CHENNAI

About 40% of hotels in around Chennai will be re-opened with dine-in on 8th June.  Majority of hotel owners adopt wait and watch mood while others struggling with manpower shortage and financial constraints to run/start the show.  Over 9500 eateries including bakeries and coffee shops were regular in functioning.  They face huge manpower shortage which will take a minimum of six months to return to normalcy depending upon the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, based on the inputs provided by the President of Chennai Hotels Association who owns Vasanta Bhavan group of hotels.

Cash crunch is a major hurdle and hotelier expect assistance from the government by way of removing GST and also providing bank loans for the hotel industry.  The hotels have decided to drop many of the items from the menu while major hotel players have decided to open only select outlets in order to get business out of the same.  This is with an aim to get good footfall to the premises.  Vasantha Bhavan have decided to open only Mylapore and Maduravoyal outlets for dine-in out of over 30 restaurants under its belt.

Dindigul Thalappakatti have opened little over half of its capacity for dine-in as an initial measure.  The other outlets are providing takeaways.  Customers have the facility of checking menu through QR code.  Upon ordering, the server will scan for its confirmation.  A take away menu card will help others who do not have the knowledge of going through QR code. 

Adyar Ananda Bhavan with A2B chain of hotels have decided to open only select outlets.  They have enough manpower to run the show and most of them are local labourers only.  Migrant workers were used for cleaning of utensils and other miscellaneous works.  The menu has been cut down so that services could be faster with improved takeaways. 

Hotel Pandian which has branches at Gummidipoondi and Ambattur is expecting customers less than half of its capacity and they also face labour shortage. 

The dine-in hotels scheduled to function from today have carried out necessary clean up and sanitisation with a clear view to follow safety norms enlisted by the government.  The seating tables have been suitably altered to accommodate three or four people.