In an interview with CEO East Africa, the hotel’s General Manager, Mr. Jean Philippe Bittencourt, said that the hotel is mainly catering to “guests that could not leave the country” as well as a “few residents in our apartments.”
“We are generally operating at only at less than 3 % (occupancy rate),” he said.
“As far as bookings are concerned, of course, there is nothing coming through and April is expected to be completely quiet. Most of our outlets are closed lest for Food and Beverage service and a few rooms,” he said, adding: “We are also adhering to the WHO and GoU safety standards to safeguard Sheraton Kampala Hotel as a Covid-19 free environment; thus any bookings are subject to all the necessary checks including confirmation that they have not traveled in the last two weeks.”
“As far as staff are concerned and with consultation and advice from the representative unions, most of the non-essential staff have been sent on paid leave and no terminations are foreseen at this time. The bottom line is to keep all staff safe in adherence to the WHO, Uganda Government, and Marriott Hotels global standards,” he said.
Sheraton is one of Marriott International’s brands.
Phillippe said that the hotel is right now focusing its efforts on “enforcing the international standard safety measures, which have been in operation since the beginning of this month (March).”
“Secondly the training and sensitisation is an ongoing process with regular updates coordinated by Marriott International. Lastly, we have a crisis committee that meets twice a day on a daily basis where all systems are closely checked and monitored,” he said.
He also said that they are focusing on securing supplies, which “might become an issue if the situation does not make a quick recovery.”
“With this downturn, we have been forced to deal with priority products, one of them being food and sanitary supplies. Here we have bolstered the supply chain to ensure we are stocked as negotiations have been had in order to achieve win-win positions on both sides,” he said.
Hotel Africana, cuts operations to 1%
At Hotel Africana, Meddie Nsubuga, the Operations Director said their story is not any different.
Bob Okodi, Amref Health Africa Uganda CFO, On Purpose-Driven Finance and Measuring Impact in Lives, Not Margins“We have been affected very badly, very badly, is all I can say, “he told this reporter on phone.
“Our operations have been reduced to just 1% and we are keeping 5-10 of our staff, just in case. All the rest have been sent on leave till things normalise. But we are not terminating them,” he said.
In the last seven days there, other major hotel names in Uganda have announced substantial action on their operations. Speke Group of Hotels has closed down four hotels, namely: Speke Resort and Conference Centre, Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Dolphin Suites, and Forest Cottages till such a time when the Covid-19 effects have cleared. The Group’s other hotels, Kabira Country Club, Speke Hotel, Speke Apartments Wampewo and Speke Apartments Kitante are in partial shutdown—with only small sections of the facilities open.
Simba Group-owned Protea Hotel by Marriott Kampala and Protea Hotel by Marriott Kampala Skyz- have also scaled back operations.
The Kampala Serena Hotel also reported sending home, 89% of their staff and Anthony Chege, the General Manager confirmed that similar action had been taken at their sister hotel- Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa in Kigo, on the shores of Lake Victoria.
Elsewhere in East Africa, Serena Hotels Africa confirmed closing up to ten of its lodges and camps- five in Kenya and five in Tanzania. The temporary closure goes on up to June 15th, 2020.
The hospitality sector of the tourism industry is the worst hit by Covid-19. According to Susan Muhwezi, the Chairlady, Uganda Hotel Owners Association and Vice-Chairperson, Uganda Tourism Board, as of March 15, 2020, an estimated USD 2,089,129 (UGX 8 billion) had been lost in cancellations from only the top 5 city hotels alone.
The tourism industry is engaging the government for a stimulus package that includes tax deferments, the government negotiated bank loan repayment deferrals among others, but the government is yet to commit itself. The tourism industry says it urgently needs this intervention to stay afloat and keep jobs.
The tourism industry is Uganda’s largest forex earner. At USD1.6 billion, tourism earnings in FY18/19 were bigger than the export earnings of Uganda’s leading 17 agriculture exports combined! The sector at the end of 2018, employed 667,600 people which constituted 6.7% of all total employment. The hospitality sector contributes up to 90% of all the jobs in the tourism industry with 58% of all jobs going to women and 77% of jobs to the youth- (18-30 years).
95% of the hotels are owned by the private sector and of these, 75% are owned by Ugandan private players, 13% by other African private players and 7% by other international players.
