A Perfect Storm Of Complications For The Hospitality Sector

It has been a tough old time for the hospitality sector in recent years.  Many Public Houses up and down the country have fallen by the wayside and been forced to shut, and of course, the recent pandemic and lockdown issues have not helped either.

With pubs, bars and restaurants looking to bounce back in 2022 and play catch up in the search for profits, mainly to drive down the debt many were forced into taking on simply to survive through 2021, the last thing they needed was a cost of living crisis and a crisis in the energy sector.

With the Government taking steps to try and protect households and the unit price being capped from the beginning of October, businesses have additional concerns and will have to wait a little longer for some help to filter through.

The Conservatives have announced most of the details of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, and business owners know that the wholesale energy price will be capped for six months from October 1 - 21.2p per kilowatt hours for electricity and 7.5p per kilowatt hours for gas.

Organisations already on a fixed price contract will be eligible for this scene, as long as that deal started after April 1 of this year, and in short, those on variable tariffs will automatically receive a discount for each unit of energy used - however importantly, it must be remembered these savings will not appear on bills until November and then it will be backdated to account for October.  With the winter World Cup out in Qatar beginning in late November, for some, that will work wonders as they try and attract the football crowd in through their doors and some pubs, in particular, may want to look into providing free, or low charge wifi to encourage their cliental to stay longer whilst enjoying the likes of Betstation sports betting sites as the matches, and the tournament progresses, given how many fans enjoy spicing up their football with a bit of a flutter.

Whilst this is far from a perfect solution for energy rich businesses, those in the hospitality sector will now have to attempt to juggle the issues raised by far higher prices (even with the help being offered), punters not having as deep a set of pockets themselves, and to make issues worse, we are heading into autumn with the darker nights drawing in, so electricity use naturally rises at this time of the year, and heating also becomes more of a drain on a businesses finances with the colder weather coming into play.

Particularly with regard to the issues faced in the previous 36 odd months, these latest concerns will again deliver a significant blow to the hospitality and night time socialising sectors, and for those who are already struggling to break even, approaching the more lucrative Christmas season may in fact not actually help them balance the books given the almost perfect storm of pressures being faced.

This is however, where the upcoming World Cup could prove to be very rewarding for businesses who are capable of catering to those football fans who do want to go out and socialise, eat drink and be merry, whilst watching the action with their friends, family or work colleagues.

Undoubtedly, had the World Cup taken place in the summer that would have been far more preferable to the industry as a whole as with less reliance on electric and heating costs, that would have meant for a far greater boost to profits and some more surety for the future.

It is unfortunately what it is though, and businesses will simply have to do all they can to capitalise, whilst making sensible cut backs and savings where they can.