Omicron scare: Hotels in Delhi see less bookings for 2nd consecutive year

The hotels in New Delhi that were hoping to recover after the second COVID-19 wave in the country, have reported less number of bookings in this festive season as compared to the pre-pandemic era due to the fear of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.

However, the cancellation of the existing bookings has not taken place.

Speaking to ANI, front office manager at Hotel Lohias, Sanjeev said, "We are not seeing any cancellation of bookings till now. Things are going normally. For the past 3-4 days, we are seeing fewer customers at the hotel. Before that, after the second wave, the situation improved and it was the same as it was before Covid. We can't say what could be the reason for fewer guests coming to the hotel, but yes less number of guests are coming to the hotel."

The front office manager further informed that the hotel is adhering to all COVID protocols.

"We are using the same precautionary measures as we used to take during Covid. The whole staff wear masks, rooms are sanitised from time to time and guests are told to wear masks before entering the hotel. We sanitise the guests and their luggage too," Sanjeev added.

Talking about the declining trend in the fresh bookings at hotels, front office manager of Hotel The Class, Jitendra Kumar Yadav said that the people are not travelling amid the Covid scare once again and hence the number of new guests has fallen.

Some Hotels are also cancelling the bookings when the customers fail to show their COVID vaccination certificate.

"We are facing less number of bookings in the hotel. Seeing the situation of covid, people are not travelling and very less number of guests are coming due to this. Sometimes, we have to cancel the bookings from our end. As if a customer is coming and they don't have their vaccination certificate or negative report of covid, in that case, we have to cancel the booking. As precautionary measures, we provide masks to the guests if they don't have them. We sanitise them and the rooms as well," he told ANI.

Mahesh, front office manager of another city hotel, International Inn, however, said that there has not been much of a difference from the number of bookings earlier.

"Not much difference is there. We have not witnessed any cancellation of bookings. People are coming in a normal way. We are taking precautions like the use of sanitiser, sanitising the rooms, checking for vaccination certificates and then allowing the customers," he said.

Notably, India has so far reported over 200 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25.

WHO has classified Omicron as a variant of concern.

India reported the first case of Omicron on December 2.