“Every Saturday, I feel as if I am running a peaceful operation in the eye of a major storm,” said Gérald Van Reck, general manager of Buddha-Bar Hotel Paris.
As the world knows, every Saturday since November 17, 2018, Paris, and many other French locations, have been rocked by gilets jaunes, demonstrators wearing yellow high-visibility vests protesting for more economic justice. The 56-room hotel on Rue d’Anjou is four minutes’ walk from the Elysée Palace, official residence of the French President Emmanuel Macron. Not surprisingly, the area around the Elysée Palace is completely locked down, from 7 a.m. Saturday to about 6 p.m. the same evening.
“The main challenge is getting guests in and out of the hotel. All our 67 staff have permits, which they carry with their ID cards. When guests are arriving, they call us and someone goes to meet them and escort them through the many police check-points,” Van Reck explained. “Three weeks ago we had a wedding. The 80 guests arrived in specially hired buses, which had to be escorted in. After the party the buses needed to leave simultaneously, but the police asked them to delay an hour. So we gave the women bedroom slippers to recover from wearing too-high heels, and we plied them with coffee and whatever else they wanted.”
For the first three or four weeks of protests rooms occupancy only suffered at weekends, but by December total business was down 10%, and ADR also down 10%. January 2019 showed no change but the 56-room hotel is anticipating a slight improvement for February. The market from UK and US has shown the biggest decline. Usually the guests are 20% domestic and, overall, 20% business with average stay three nights.
This hotel has always had a short booking window and it is impossible to forecast what might happen during the high tourist season this year. At weekends, F&B has gained for hotel guests who cannot get out, but it has lost locals who cannot get in. In an attempt to mitigate damage, Van Reck is scrutinizing every hotel purchase. Hiring is frozen and all staff are being asked to take annual holidays this month, if possible.
“My team is marvelous. Just as our suppliers have been coming pre-dawn on Saturdays, so my team comes early to beat the 7 a.m. lock-down, and they stay late,” Van Reck said. “They will do anything. I have had no incidents of staff depression or mental anxiety. I am also extremely lucky having owners, Katara Hospitality, who are truly supportive. My contact, Omer Acar, calls me most Saturday mornings.”
Van Reck, too, has been working Saturdays (his family fully understands, he said). But what in this proud Belgian’s past has prepared him for this current challenge? “Well, probably all my years of never knowing what comes next. And there are always high points, even now,” he said. “Despite what is happening with the yellow vests, our January 2019 revenue management cross-system rating was the best since the hotel opened in 2013.”