Hotels are struggling in the corona crisis.
The situation in youth hostels and school camps is even more precarious: in Bavaria, school trips are suspended until at least January 2021, which means that the main customers for these companies are no longer there.
The hostels in the district are also looking to an uncertain future.
Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen -
Summer was another ray of hope.
Plenty of families and cycling tourists stayed in the Tölz sports youth hostel.
Currently, however, the occupancy is "very sparse", says the deputy director Barbara Bielmeier.
And whether it will get better in the autumn break is more than questionable.
In November the entire workforce will be back on short-time work.
Will the youth hostel close then?
“No, not yet,” says Bielmeier.
Meanwhile, in the Tölz finance committee, the spa director Brita Hohenreiter made it unmistakably clear: "The youth hostel will take a long time to recover."
Only three to four bookings until Christmas
While the Walchensee youth hostel has just closed the doors, the Don Bosco youth hostel in Benediktbeuern is also open.
“But we mustn't ask the question of profitability,” says manager Björn Koalick.
The house with its 172 beds is otherwise fully booked from May to September, around 80 to 120 guests would be there at this time of year.
According to Koalick, it is currently exactly a group of 15 people.
"We have three to four group bookings until Christmas, a total of 100 to 120 overnight stays."
In addition, 23 participants from the Don Bosco Academy live in a separate shared apartment in the house - young people who actually want to go on a social assignment abroad, but are now waiting to see whether this will be possible at all.
Cancellations as early as spring 2021
Koalick does not expect any significant improvement before summer 2021.
"The cancellations for February and March are already coming in." As in most hostels, cancellation fees, short-time working allowances and state aid have helped for the time being.
"We will still close 2020 in negative terms," said Koalick.
For the future, he believes that the Benediktbeuern location is too important for the sponsor, the Salesians Don Bosco, to close the facility.
Also read: This is how Corona and the lockdown affected the Tölzer restaurateurs
The “Pfadiheim” in Geretsried, where the “Wilde Rose” association runs a self-catering house with 30 beds, does not have such a strong partner behind it.
Herbert Swoboda reports that only small groups of up to five people can now be accommodated there.
He is the networking officer of the association, which strives for international youth exchange.
There is a hygiene concept - the usual cooking together is taboo - and distance rules are easy to comply with on the spacious grounds.
“Still, almost every second group cancels,” says Swoboda.
"Then we can close"
According to Swoboda, cancellation fees and 2300 euros state aid are not sufficient in the long run.
Because the fixed costs of 1500 euros per month continue to run - even though there are no personnel costs, because the hostel is based on voluntary work.
There is no funding from the city, district or state.
"If it continues like this, we'll make it through February or March," says Swoboda.
"If we don't get institutional support by then, we can close."
The school camp in Bairawies has been closed since March - and that will remain so at least until the end of January, explains managing director Franz Josef Drexler.
The seven employees are all on short-time work.
90 percent of the guests here are usually school classes.
What happens in the future, “we don't know,” says Drexler.
The sponsor, the Schullandheimwerk Oberbayern, is a non-profit association and should therefore not create reserves for bad times.
"We live from hand to mouth."
"On the move at half speed"
The city of Munich operates a school campus in Ambach.
“The occupancy rate is lower this year, but the facility will continue to operate,” explains Julia Mayer, press spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Sport.
After the school classes were discontinued, other users remained, for example providers of career orientation measures.
The second school camp that the city of Munich operates in the Münsing community, the “Seeheim”, is closed anyway due to extensive renovation measures.
According to Mayer, this work should be completed in 2021.
Also read: Tourism balance in the Tölzer Land in Corona times: spring bad - summer more than right
In the Hochland Königsdorf youth settlement, Roland Herzog, one of the two directors of the facility, hopes to be at least "on the move with half his strength" during the upcoming autumn holidays.
But in view of the dynamic infection situation and ever new regulations, “we have to reassess the situation from day to day,” he says.
"Adapting operations to this requires a high degree of flexibility - and luckily our employees have that." Nevertheless: "The next time will not be easy," says Herzog.
The fact that short-time work and low occupancy will accompany the youth settlement for longer is "relatively safe".