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Job losses and insolvencies in the UK’s hotel sector will likely rise in 2021 without government support, according to global hotel consultancy HVS.
While larger hotel groups and prominent owners will be able to inject additional funds into their businesses to survive, independent hotel businesses with constrained financial resources or liquidity are expected to be the hardest hit.
Russell Kett, HVS’s UK chairman, stated that more hotel staff are likely to be made redundant across the sector, and businesses breaching banking covenants and mounting unpaid debts will be forced to call in the receivers and declare bankruptcy.
Kett said: “The hotel and wider hospitality sector has been the economy’s biggest generator of employment over recent years and is the only sector with the capacity to rapidly boost employment on the recovery out of this.
“For this to happen, though, the sector needs support to see it through H1 2021 and not be exacerbating the employment problem through a lack of support now.”
