Stanisław Rozpędzik/PAP

Polish hotels face the prospect of a tough festive period with a survey showing that close to three quarters of them have less than 30 percent of their rooms booked.

The Polish Hotel Chamber of Commerce (IGHP), which carried out the survey, said the low level of reservations was due to uncertainty related to the coronavirus pandemic and travel decisions being postponed until the last minute.

The IGHP reported that its latest questionnaire had seen weaker results for November than in October and the preceding months, with almost half of respondents reporting occupancy below 40 percent and only 30 percent declaring they were more than 50-percent booked.

The IGHP said reservations for the coming three months were also below expectations. “In December, almost 3/4 of hotels indicate occupancy below 30 percent…. In January – the first month of winter break – 4/5 hotels have reservations at the level of no more than 20 percent, with the dominant group (40 percent) having occupancy of up to 5 percent,” the chamber said. “In February, very similar to January, hotels do not exceed 20-percent occupancy, with the dominant group, below 5 percent, standing at 57 percent.”

The IGHP’s secretary general, Marcin Maczynski, told PAP the result was very poor.

Maczynski pointed out that the last day of completing the questionnaire coincided with a health ministry press conference at which new Covid restrictions were announced from December 15, putting limits on occupancy. “The weak survey results in the forecast period do not reflect the negative effects of those decisions,” he said.

He added that limits imposed for unvaccinated people from December 1, had seen one in two hotels recording a 20-percent drop in reservations.

The online survey was conducted on December 2-7, 2021, on 172 hotels across Poland.