Eastbourne hotel bosses see increase in bookings since government roadmap announcement

The government’s roadmap to ease the country out of lockdown was announced on Monday (Febrauary 22) and it appears that people are already planning their summer holidays.

Neil Kirby, who owns the Langham Hotel on Royal Parade with his wife Wendy, said, “I have seen the phones are busy, there are no doubts about that. Some people have been booking from about May 17, when we open, but most are booking June, July in case something else happens.

“We are charging full rate as that is what has to be done I’m afraid as we try to get back some of the money that we have lost.”

Jonathan Webley, general manager of the Grand Hotel on King Edward’s Parade, also agreed he had seen increase in interest.

Mr Webley said, “We have seen a large upsurge in demand for rooms because, like us, potential guests now have some degree of at least they’ll know when we are aiming to be open and so that provides a bit more certainty to make a booking and bookings here, we have taken the view that nothing is certain with this pandemic so we offer bookings which are available to be moved, should that be required, at no extra cost.

“We have had significant interest from largely individuals and also from people who are organising potential events, conferences, meetings and social events.

“We have experienced a lot of demand from individual people who are now seeing that there may be an end to this.”

OYO The Strand Hotel on Royal Parade has also seen a boost in interest according to managing director Ankur Aggarwal.

Mr Aggarwal said, “There has been a lot of interest. It has got the wheels and the cogs moving again. We are hopeful, as long as the road map doesn’t change, that it will be a good summer for British tourism but fingers crossed.”

Despite this trend Mr Aggarwal believes there has also been a number of people cancelling their holiday plans

Mr Aggwarwal said, “We have also seen an increase in cancellations because we had some people booked in for April and this isn’t going to be over by then so those people have cancelled according to the roadmap.”

The Langham Hotel also experienced a similar trend as people cancelled their pre-booked vacations.

Mr Kirby said, “We lost £600,000 in business that was booked for all of March because we didn’t know when we were going to open so people were booking from last year.

“Especially last year with the coach business, bowls groups and individual private people, that is the business we take at the Langham.

“So all of March and all of April and the first 16 days into May before we open on the 17th, we have just wiped off £600,000. It was lost business that was pre-booked before unfortunately but we will get it back, we will get busy and we saw that last year when we were open on July 4.”

As people refrained from travelling abroad in the summer, many decided to vacation domestically and a number of hotel owners are hoping for the same this year.

Mr Webley said, “I think all signs suggest that it will be good for Eastbourne this summer because of the uncertainty about foreign travel and I think there is a huge pent up demand to explore other areas apart from one’s home and so I think I am looking forward to potentially a really good summer and hopefully that will extend further on in the year as well.

“Last year when we opened after the first lockdown there was a huge demand and that extended all the way through to when we had to close again in November. So it wasn’t necessarily weather dependent as well. It will be interesting to see what happens.”

Mr Kirby said, “We had a tremendous summer. I just hope that the government allows the VAT to stay at five per cent. That is a tremendous help for us.

“It is very important to get that help. Especially the VAT because every pound you take you lose 20p, well now it’s only 5p. So let’s hope it stays at 5p. It helps our revenue so I think it is going to be a busy summer.”

Despite experiencing the boost in the summer there is the worry that people will be able to travel abroad again which would take away from the local tourism industry.

Mr Aggarwal said, “We did have a massive influx in tourism in the summer but with that being said people weren’t able to fly or you could only fly for essential reasons so when things open up in June in the UK I am guessing that will include airports and flights.”