Status: 06/26/2021 6:33 a.m.
Restaurant, pubs and beer gardens are open again. But many innkeepers have raised prices. The reasons for this are hygiene requirements, staff shortages and the previous loss of sales.
Kölsch, schnitzel, homemade biscuits: “At Oma Kleinmann’s” there is a Cologne lifestyle. A rustic traditional restaurant in the south of Cologne, where students and people from Urköln sit next to each other. Maureen Wolf and her husband run the restaurant together with the Klüther-Jankovic family. Together they employ 31 salaried and part-time workers.
A few weeks ago it was a great relief for everyone to be able to open again. There are now 20 tables outside and 20 inside. You can reserve seats on the website. The demand is there – the guests are coming back.
Higher staffing requirements
But Wolf needs more staff than before Corona: there are also two service staff per day, she says. For example, they receive the guests, lead them to the reserved table and disinfect them after use.
The effort is significantly higher and the personnel for it difficult to find – especially since Wolf had to let employees go during the lockdown who do not come back. An employee got a good job offer. “We also said, accept that. We don’t know what else we can offer you,” said Wolf. Other colleagues don’t even know how they can open their bar because they don’t have the staff.
Five to ten percent surcharge
Because of these additional costs, the landlady had to raise the prices. The Kölsch or Schnitzel now cost five to ten percent more here. And that probably does not compensate for the loss in sales from seven months of lockdown. At times it was 100 percent failure.
Aid from the state was able to compensate for this in part: Short-time work, emergency aid, November and December aid, “At Oma Kleinmann’s” worked. “But we still don’t know whether or how much we will have to repay,” said Wolf. New purchases such as outdoor pavilions or an additional dishwasher also had to be paid for first.
“At Oma Kleinmann’s” got through the crisis thanks to government aid.
Image: Ingrid Bertram
The German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) cannot yet say exactly how big the loss will be in the end and how many businesses will actually close because of the pandemic. According to the association, 70 to 120 insolvency proceedings have been registered in the catering industry every month since March of this year. However, there were fewer operational tasks overall in the past year than in the previous year before the pandemic. DEHOGA managing director Ingrid Hartges believes that the state aid actually worked: “Over 50,000 companies were saved as a result.”
The joy of life returns
Nevertheless, there is still a lack of guests in many areas. You can feel that the zest for life is back, but there are still hardly any festivals, congresses or events that draw people to cities. And above all, the tourists from abroad were still missing.
The industry is therefore hoping that the aid will be extended until the end of the year. Bar owner Wolf is now looking forward to the summer, which will continue to fill her restaurant, and she hopes that guests will come who feel like a Kölsch despite the price premium.