Nothing the hospitality sector does is good enough, according to a South East Restaurant owner.
It comes as Loko in Waterford has lost 90 per cent of their bookings for the festive season.
All staff vaxxed. Huge open space over 3 floors. Every single charter and covid procedures in place. Covid inspector delighted with us.Outside dining etc. We have done absolutely everything and more and it's still not enough. Cancellations at epic proportions. #tired
— LokoWaterford 🌻 (@LokoRestaurant) November 29, 2021
Earlier this month, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said cancelling Christmas parties would be a 'responsible decision' due to rising Covid cases.
Speaking to Beat News, Nichola Dowling, owner of Loko says they are completely wiped out:
"Nothing we do is good enough, cancellations are coming in rapidly. Every single phone call I had yesterday was a cancellation. For example Friday night I had a full and I'm now left with a table of three."
"I've lost all of the Christmas bookings, we are completely wiped out 90% of our gone."
Meanwhile, demoralising is how another Waterford restaurant owner has described his feelings about party bookings in the run-up to Christmas.
Peter Everett of Everett's Restaurant says there has been a huge amount of party and group cancellations recently.
He said it follows the recommendation from NPEHT that people should cut back on their socialising.
"We have had an awful lot of cancellations for the month of December, so most of the Christmas parties are gone at this stage - we still have reasonable good bookings for weekends but most of them are gone."
