The owner of one of Jersey’s foremost luxury hotels has written an open letter to explain how the establishment is tackling the Covid-19 crisis.
Patrick Burke of The Atlantic Hotel, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in May, said the letter was written to keep communication ongoing with loyal customers and islanders. Communication, he said, was vital for keeping up the hotel’s profile.
‘I’m sitting here in an empty hotel, there’s no one here, so I feel a very strong urge to reach out to the community of people we have known over the years to say that, yes, we know times are hard but when you can come back, we are ready for you. Our amazing team is still with us. Don’t forget about us,’ said Mr Burke, whose father, Henry, established the hotel on Jersey’s west coast.
‘There are a lot of people on the island who know The Atlantic. There are a lot of people in Guernsey who know us – we have a network of friends all over the world. Hotels are about people and so it’s important to communicate. We have a lot of stakeholders, from staff to suppliers, who rely on us, so we have to be positive and stay strong for them.’
A hotel under lockdown
The hotel has helped repatriate all of its seasonal staff and is now operating with a skeleton team. It has offered accommodation to any staff members needing it as well as one or two ex-employees who have nowhere else to go. It has also relaxed its cancellation policy for the remainder of the year and launched a takeaway food service.
‘For a lot of locals, Ocean Restaurant is an important part of their lives so by launching a takeaway menu, we’re ensuring that they remember us. We’re launching a free delivery service, too. It’s not going to make us any money or even cover running costs, but it means we can still work. It means our chefs, restaurant manager and receptionist have something to do. It gives us pride in what we do.’
Using the takeaway service and buying vouchers for future stays are ways customers can support the hotel during this time, said Mr Burke, because it provides much needed cash flow.
‘I fear for the industry and it’s exactly the same situation in Guernsey. We’ve just come out of six months of losing money – that’s what happens every winter. This crisis has come at the worst possible time in the business cycle. We’re desperately hoping we can save at least part of the summer season because we can’t expect hoteliers and restaurateurs to miss summer and go through another winter. That’s an 18-month period of losing money,’ said Mr Burke.
‘We need an exit strategy’
What started as a medical crisis will soon become an economic one, and a societal one, if Jersey’s government doesn’t have a plan beyond its immediate strategy to deal with the outbreak, Mr Burke believes.
‘I heartily applaud everything that’s been done so far but the situation is moving on and the island, our community and government, need to now start urgently planning an exit strategy. The government has a duty to look even further ahead. This is a special industry and a lot of businesses in it are family run. We can’t expect these businesses to stagger out of the crisis if we don’t think of new ways to invest in the industry’s future,’ he said.
‘This crisis is forcing Jersey to ask some really deep questions around what we feel about our industry . The time has come to have these discussions.’
A personal message from Patrick Burke
Here are some excerpts from Patrick Burke’s letter, which can be read in full here.
‘I am conscious that The Atlantic is much more than just a building. Hotels are about people: the people who work in them, the people who run them, the people who stay in them, and the local community who support and in turn are supported by them. We have near to 100 local suppliers, and I am proud to say that everyone is being paid on time despite the fact that we have had virtually no revenue coming into the business since mid-March.’
‘We are grateful to the Government of Jersey for their support in introducing a payroll co-funding arrangement to encourage businesses to keep their staff on. While this is not as generous as the UK scheme and some of the details are still a little hazy, it is certainly a great help.’
‘Many of you will know that 2020 marks a very special anniversary for The Atlantic, being 50 years since the hotel was first opened by my late father Henry Burke on 7 May 1970. You don’t get through 50 years of hotelkeeping as a family without becoming well acquainted with both triumph and disaster, and we are resolved to tackle this latest challenge head on.’
‘I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t wonder at times if the sun was about to set on our long history as a family at The Atlantic. I sometimes worry about this when I go to bed at night, but when I wake in the morning, refreshed, I am reminded that, as Hemingway noted all those years ago, the sun also rises.’
Picture caption: Main image, Patrick and Treena Burke; The Atlantic Hotel at sunset