Category: solution 360

The hospitality and tourism sectors struggle as the coronavirus outbreak deals a severe blow to their business

The InterContinental Dhaka, previously known as the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, shuttered several operations on Sunday and sent a portion of staffers on leave.

The hotel – a popular accommodation for foreigners travelling to Bangladesh – also asked its permanent employees to take due leaves as coronavirus has greatly affected the country’s hospitality sector.

Contractual employees of the hotel worry about payment during leave and reappointment after the situation improves.

The luxury facility employs more than 400 people and is currently struggling with its daily operation as booking and events have dipped due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

Its permanent staffers will receive their payments according to the employment codes, said a human resource official.

He said the temporary or call-on employees, who usually get salaries in line with the hours worked, would be called back once the coronavirus situation was over.

More than 100 temporary employees work at the hotel, and only 12 of them were on duty in three shifts on Sunday while the rest do not even know whether they have their jobs.

They are worried over reappointment though the hotel calls it a “leave adjustment”.

Another 150 call-on employees of the five-star Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel Dhaka are also worried about their jobs.

“We had to close 30 percent of our operations, but we did not fire anyone. Neither do we have such plans”; Said Mohammad Alamgir, managing director of the hotel.

The 284-room hotel employs more than 500 people. It recently got the bookings for 100 suites cancelled as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his entourages postponed the Dhaka visit over Bangabandhu’s birth centenary celebrations.

Like InterContinental Dhaka and Pan Pacific Sonargaon, all the 17 five-star hotels in the country are struggling to maintain their daily operations.

More than 5,000 people work at these hotels, one fourth of them on call-on basis.

“We do not have anything to do as the coronavirus outbreak is a global issue. Most of our
rooms are empty since the last two days. The employees were sent on leave”; said Shahid Hamid, executive director of the Dhaka Regency Hotel and Resort.

The 250-room hotel employs more than 380 people.

Shahid said the present leave of the permanent staff would be adjusted with annual vacations.

“The temporary staff will also be called back” he added.

In the meantime, employees of a five-star hotel in Dhaka complained about forced and unpaid leave.

On condition of anonymity, an official of the hotel said the authorities had told them to enjoy leave until everything returned to normalcy.

“Many of my colleagues have been sent on unpaid forced leave” he added.

The hotel has more than 550 staffers and 304 rooms.

It said its occupancy rate dropped more than 60 percent recently.

Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden, The Westin Dhaka and Renaissance Dhaka Gulshan Hotel have 380, 550 and 350 employees respectively.

Staffers of the foreigner guest-based hotels have been passing idle time as 70-80 percent of the rooms remain empty.

The Health Services Division will bear all expenses of this quarantine initiative

The government has taken the initiative to ensure provisional accommodation facilities for healthcare providers — doctors, nurses and other medical staff — who are treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals.

Physicians, nurses and medical workers treating coronavirus patients at hospitals across Bangladesh have been asked to stay at nearby hotels while they are on duty, instead of returning home, officials at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The move follows the example of other countries, including China and India, as a preventive measure to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Yasemin Akaydin Miller, managing director, PASS International FZE, discusses how impractical deadlines can harm OS&E objectives

Has it ever happen to you?  You are at a project meeting, looking out of the window to the hotel that is being built and thinking about the opening date you have just been given. Have you asked yourself, if this is the same building they are talking about or you are lost in translation?

There are many reasons why projects get delayed; it is sometimes inevitable. However knowing the dates have been pushed forward and not informing the parties involved, is not a good move, especially for OS&E procurement.

What are they trying to achieve?

Trying to make the owners and investors happy by saying ‘ it can be done’ (well let’s face it, sometimes you could loose your job if you say no) or making sure that you keep everyone who is involved in the project on their toes all the time or you like to stress others and yourself for no reason, or you are a very, very optimistic person and believe in miracles or you really don’t know what you are doing…

I can go on with the list, but still could not understand it till this date, why a certain non achievable deadline is set or the project is delayed and everyone is told to follow the original schedule, despite the fact that in numerous occasions, ‘unofficially’ everyone tells each other that ‘it is not going to happen!’… Everyone knows, but everyone still follows blindly.

Why?

There is a contract and unless someone sends you an official letter regarding the opening date, you are obliged to follow; in case a miracle happens, you don’t want to be the one who is blamed for non-performance!

What happens next?

You start working very hard to achieve the deadline. You have lots and lots of products to be sourced and to be specified. You need to get all the quotations, analyse and compare the costing, get approvals and issue the orders. You put pressure on everyone around you; the operator to specify, the owner to sign orders and pay deposits, the suppliers to commit on deliveries.

You continue checking with the site regarding the opening date. You still get the same answer.  You -should- warn them about the consequences, cost implications, handling and procedural difficulties. But most of the time nothing changes.

The time comes… (Congratulations, you have managed to achieve the deadline!)

You now want to organise the deliveries; you will hear the following:
‘The site is not ready to receive the goods!’
‘The areas are not handed over to the operator, so nothing can be received at site!’
‘Hold on to the goods. Don’t deliver them yet!’
‘Ask the suppliers to keep the goods in their warehouse!’
Surprise, surprise… Or should I say, smile you are on the candid camera!
Can you imagine the position that you would be in as a procurement person? You pushed the suppliers to manufacture, to ship, to do whatever they can to achieve the date, do the impossible; at the end when the time comes, you say: ‘Stop, don’t
deliver. We are not ready…’ And now, you are even asking them to store the items for you. Is this fair? No, not really. Will they do it? Yes, they will, up to a certain time, depending on the amount of the order. Everyone is prepared for a month’s delay. But if it is over that period, then they will start charging you.

When should you deliver OSE?

Other than couple of items that need installation, like your mattresses, minibars, safes, TVs, everything should be delivered at least one month before the opening.  The ideal and best way to deliver OSE is directly to site, where everything can be received, counted, stored and placed at the right areas by the operator.

If you don’t have a ready site, you have to deliver the items to a warehouse. Not an ordinary warehouse; a big, air- conditioned and a managed warehouse. You store your items there till the site is ready to receive deliveries.

Result

Not only this has a huge cost impact on your project, it also creates big logistic issues; everything need to be double handled; transported, received, counted and delivered again. Along the process, it is almost inevitable to have some items broken, misplaced or lost.

The consequences at delivery are not the only obstacle; you have also created the following by achieving an unrealistic
deadline:
– No time for negotiation
– You cannot get what you want; you get what is available
– No time for customisation, making something special
– Because of minimised production time, you pay more for the items
– You rushed everything; you are open to make mistakes
– You spent a lot more, not for what you get, but to clean up the mess.
So, keep smiling…