By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent

JUST days after the stricter Modified Enhancement Community Quarantine was extended here, hoteliers are complaining of losing millions of pesos in canceled bookings.

Amy Saniel, manager of an upscale hotel here said clients have canceled the bookings they made for July 1 to 15 after National Inter-Agency Task Force extended the stricter quarantine measures.

“In two days we lost one million pesos in bookings and sales. I do not know how we can survive this,” Saniel said.

Saniel said local hotels have already bounced back before the MECQ was imposed on June 1.

“Now what you see are hotels with darkened lobbies, unoccupied rooms, empty restaurants, and (no) functions. It is really very sad,” Saniel said.

The IATF imposed the MECQ for Cagayan de Oro from June 1 to 30 after the city experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases that threatened its hospital system.

Last Monday evening, the IATF again extended the strict quarantine measure after the surge of Covid-19 cases did not decline.

The National Economic Development Authority in its briefing “Northern Mindanao Socioeconomic Outlook” said the hotel of accommodation and food services lost P166 million during the period from June 1 to June 30.

NEDA-10 regional director Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño said some 320 business firms and hotels in Cagayan de Oro have reduced or retrenched their employees.

Cariño said some 4,200 employees have been affected by the retrenchment and reduction of workforce.

Saniel said they have reduced their hotel employees from 100 before the pandemic to only 29 workers at present.

She said these employees are working only for three days a week.

“Some of our employees took turns in working these shifts just to earn money,” Saniel said.

Saniel said local small pension houses have resorted to converting their establishments into temporary isolation units for Covid-19 cases.

She said the local government of Cagayan de Oro pays these pension houses for housing Covid-19 patients.

Saniel said big hotels like the one she manages can not go the way the local pension houses do to survive because of the stigma it can raise.

“We have our image to protect. Our clients will not go back to us once they learned we converted into temporary isolation units for Covid-19 patients,” Saniel said.

“Besides our employees (have not been) vaccinated yet,” she added.