Restaurants, hotels close in Hungary due to high utility bills
Új Sipos, a landmark restaurant in Budapest's 3rd district, will close from 1 September, according to its Facebook page. The tenants can no longer afford to run the restaurant due to the energy crisis and the ever-increasing cost of raw materials.
The Graben restaurant in Sopron, which has more than 30 years of history, can no longer continue its activities and has decided to close its doors from 5 September.
ATV reported that the Guild of Hungarian Restaurateurs (MVI) estimates that there are 3,400 fewer catering establishments - including 1,400 restaurants - than there were before the pandemic. However, the current situation could affect the sector even more severely.
Tamás Flesch, honorary president of the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants, said earlier that
20-25% of hotels and 30-50% of restaurants could close due to inflation and overheads.
"Nobody knows what will happen. One thing is for sure: a wellness hotel in the countryside cannot bear hundreds of millions of forints in additional annual costs, but the same goes for a hotel in Budapest, where energy costs of HUF 50 million rise to HUF 200 million, and then there's the cost of raw materials and labour," said Tamás Flesch.
He noted that bookings by domestic guests for overnight stays in the autumn have already slowed down.
Thanks to the end of the pandemic-related restrictions, inbound tourism in Hungary is recovering more and more dynamically, despite the lack of Ukrainian and Russian tourists due to the war. Chinese travellers are also few and far between due to the strict Chinese COVID-19 rules, the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants (MSZÉSZ) told state newswire MTI on Friday. As for the future, the association's president Csaba Baldauf said that "what is coming now will be harsher than Covid."
The Hotel Solar in Nagyatád will close for five months due to the increased energy prices and the expected decrease in the number of guests, the hotel manager told Sonline.hu on Thursday.
Andrea Huszár explained to the portal that the price of gas has tripled, so according to their calculations, they would have to pay HUF 5.5 mn to HUF 6 million per month for gas during the heating period, but they cannot afford it. The current gas bills are between HUF 1.8 mn and HUF 2.2 mn.
"In order to be open next year, we have to close now," the hotel manager stressed, adding that they will be closed between 1 November 2022 and 1 April 2023. The hotel with 60 rooms was opened in 2007.
The manager of the Park Hotel and Restaurant in Nagyatád said that eleven people will be made redundant and they will close from 31 October.
Their monthly gas bill during the heating season used to be HUF 500,000 to HUF 600,000, but now it would rise to HUF 3.5-4 million.
Some local restaurants have already had to increase their menu prices by 50%, but they are forced to raise them further, even though they have not calculated the cost of the electricity bill into their prices, and they may well close down for the winter.
The museum, art gallery, clubhouse, gym and youth club in the town of about 10,000 inhabitants will also close for the heating season, and the library will be open only one day a week.
Cover photo: Getty Images
