Hyderabad: Hotels hard hit by labour shortage

Hyderabad: As most of the labourers left for their home-towns, Irani hotels are functioning with minuscule staff. The hotels have either cut the menu or not at all throwing open their dining halls. "Though, the government allowed us to run business with guidelines, we are unable to run our business smoothly and still the dining hall is closed," said Mohammed Raza, manager of Cafe Bahar in Basheerbagh.

Syed Ali Raza of Lucky Hotel in Nagole said that his chain of hotels employed around 200 people, with 50 for small eateries and 150 for restaurants across the city. Presently, not more than a dozen members are working in each hotel. A majority of the workers left for UP and Bihar. "With no workers at hotels and restaurants, we had reduced the dishes in menu and are preparing only Moghalai with help of local chefs," he added.

Mohammed Jaleel, CEO of Hotel Grand in Abids and member of Telangana Hotel Owners Association, said that in keeping with the Covid guidelines, they were serving food in superior disposable crockery and reduced the seating capacity from 120 to 40.

The owner of Dewaan group of hotels at Red Hills, Shaik Mahboob, said that earlier they used to prepare around 25-30 handi Biryani (both mutton and chicken) and now they are preparing only 5-6 handis. "In this way we can't even bear the expenditure nor pay our rentals," he said.

Some of the small hotel owners said that they were selling only tea and snacks for takeaways, as their business mostly involves serving tea with seating arrangement. "Local dishes like Bagara Khana, noodles, puri are being served and we are avoiding preparation of other dishes," said Mohammed Khaja in Old City.