Today, hoteliers in Serbia estimated that additional state aid of 60 percent of the minimum wage for employees in just two months will not save many hotels from closing.
The director of the Radison Collections Hotel in Belgrade, Aleksandar Vasilijevic, told Beta that “any help is welcome, but it is not enough, because the business situation is difficult and only hotels that have savings from previous years will survive.”
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, announced a new package of assistance to entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises with financial support for the salaries of employees in the amount of 60 percent of the minimum wage for two months, with a tax delay of at least one month.
“All hotels have been in the red since April 1, and whoever saved before, is now spending that accumulation, because the income is only a few percent of the income a year earlier,” said Vasilijevic.
The owner of the “Ana-lux” hotel in Pirot, Ana Lazarevic, said that the announced help would enable the hotel to survive until October, “when it will be able to lay off redundant employees without punishment”.
“Everyone who took help for the payment of minimum wages from the first package, repented, because it was conditioned by the ban on dismissal of redundant employees over ten percent, otherwise the fine is 5 thousand euros, the money taken would have to be returned in five days, with interest of 17 percent,” said Lazarevic.
She added that hoteliers thought that the pandemic would calm down and start working, and now that the pandemic has continued and there is no work, everyone is in big trouble and shock.
Lazarevic said that there are three or four guests in the hotel, and there are more waiters than guests in the restaurant.
According to her, the hotel “Ana-lux” pays 2 thousand euros a month for “engaged electricity”, and with consumed kilowatts over 10 thousand euros.
“The costs towards state-owned utilities are huge. A few days ago, inspectors from Nis came under control to check whether an application was made for the payment of a fee for performing musical works (‘musical dinar’) to their authors, which is submitted in February and costs around 500 euros,” said Lazarevic.
The director of the “M” hotel in Belgrade, Desimir Popovic, assessed that the additional help from the state is not enough and that the hoteliers expect that the support in “full” minimums will continue until the end of this year, Danas reports.
