With great enthusiasm, hope and above all hoping that "this is the definitive one". This is how the workers of the Hotel Secrets Lanzarote Resort & Spa, located in Puerto Calero, faced its reopening last Friday, after this establishment had to close twice during the pandemic.
"We are very happy because we are reopening. In fact, we thought you were the first customers", said its director, Alejandro Garrido, who received La Voz on the first day of the reopening of this hotel when, still, no tourist had arrived.
The first reservation was for the afternoon but, from the first hour of the morning, the workers were in their positions ready to receive the first customers. At the reception calls were already being answered, in the kitchens the movement did not stop and in the pool area the workers were putting everything in order. "We are anxious for it to arrive and very happy, because in the end it is what gives us life. Having a closed hotel makes no sense", added Garrido.
"The profit, if all goes well, will arrive in September"
This hotel closed its doors in March 2020, after the declaration of the state of alarm and three months after having reopened after a comprehensive renovation in which the Hesperia group invested nearly 10 million euros, to turn the establishment into a hotel only for adults. In September of last year, it was put back into operation but, after four and a half "complicated" months in which it was "impossible to generate profits", it had to close again.
"We opened 125 rooms and had an average of 60% occupancy on those rooms, until the moment that nobody could fly, that nobody could do anything. We knew that the problem would come as soon as the different countries were aligned, it occurred in the third wave and we were forced to close", explained the director of the hotel, who said that it was "quite hard" when they had to close again in mid-January.
Now, el hotel has also been partially opened, only with 125 rooms out of the 335 it has available and the reservations for these first months are not much better than those they had between September and January of last year. In fact, the first weekend of reopening they only had reservations for 30 rooms, and, in the month of June, its director estimates that the occupancy will be 60%, but on the 125 rooms they have open, which really means just over 20% of the total rooms they have. A forecast that is not expected to improve in July and August either, since, being a hotel for adults, "the high season is outside the summer". "July and August is more for families and our high season is usually May-June and from September", he detailed.
Therefore, for now, although those who stay at this hotel can enjoy all its services, its six restaurants will not be open every day. "At night, we used to open up to five restaurants and now we are going to open them alternately, so that the client can try them all. With 125 rooms you can't open them simultaneously, but you can open them alternately, so that the client can enjoy the whole offer", explained Alejandro Garrido.
"The profit, if all goes well, will arrive in September. Until then, it will be difficult to have profits", added the hotel director confidently, who hopes that by then the foreign markets will also have been reactivated. And, although they have already had some reservations from central Europe, most have been from customers from the Canary Islands or the Peninsula. However, he said that they are already having "a rebound in reservations" for after the summer. "If we talk about the total inventory, we would be at 20% in total, which is good for the time that is still left. And seeing a little the news that is being generated and the rate of vaccines, we think that if not normalized, at least we could already open the whole establishment", he specified.
For September, according to what he indicated, it is also expected that 100% of the workers can be incorporated and also start hiring temporary employees. And, now "70% of the staff" is being reincorporated, out of a total of 110 workers. With that same percentage of employees it was reopened in September of last year and, although a month later it was incorporated "to about 85%" of the staff", it could never reach 100%.
"We need to work"
Thus, there are workers who were able to leave the ERTE between September and January, but others who did not, as is the case of Estefanía Olivares, a chambermaid at this hotel, who, however, has been able to return to work now. "The time I was not working I had a pretty bad time, because I had too much free time and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to start working already and I have been lucky enough to be called, to have been one of the first", said this worker. "Now I am happy, not only for the salary, but for my health, both mental and physical", added this employee.
Other workers agreed with this, although in their case they were working from September to March. "I was those months, I was lucky enough to be working, but then in January we had to close again, so I was looking forward to coming to work, because at home without being able to do anything... Here is my second family, I have been here for 16 years and a person who has been in the hotel industry for so long, who likes your job, loses a lot", said Miguel Pérez, the hotel's cook.
"We hope that this is the definitive one" said Verónica Betancort, receptionist of the establishment, who said that she was "very sorry" when the hotel had to close its doors for the second time during the pandemic. "To tell you that you have to leave, that they have to stop, everyone stops you", she said, although she said that she had always faced it "with optimism", knowing that "it was something temporary". "Now they contacted us again and to continue and give everything", she added.
