Many hotel owners in RO could sell their properties after lockdown

Many hotel owners in Romania will put their properties up for sale this year, said Calin Ile, president of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR), Profit.ro reported.

He estimates that only in March, April, and May, local hotels lost EUR 240 million in revenues, the equivalent of about 6 million overnight stays.

For the whole year, the turnover in the hotel sector will drop by 60-65%, from EUR 1.4 billion in 2019, therefore by some EUR 0.9 bln in absolute terms.

Separately, some 10% of the restaurants will not be able to recover after the lockdown period and will never reopen, estimates the president of the Romanian Hotel and Restaurant Employers' Organization (HORA), Daniel Mischie.

"There are more than 5,000 locations nationwide in the restaurant industry that will not be able to reopen, out of almost 45,000 locations, so about 10 % of the units [will be lost]," Mischie said, quoted by Economica.net.

He added that, financially, the restaurant industry loses EUR 400 mln [in revenues] per month, but an even bigger loss is the qualified personnel.

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