The renewed lockdown also hits the youth hostel in Kreuth-Scharling hard.
We asked head Lucia Georg whether it could be used for school lessons.
Kreuth -
For the second time this year, the youth hostel in Kreuth-Scharling has come to a complete standstill due to a lockdown.
Then there are the uncertain prospects: When will the corona pandemic allow school trips again?
Will there even be a New Year's Eve shop this year?
In order to be able to occupy the houses at least as an alternative, the youth hostel organization has now even proposed that its houses - 42 in Bavaria alone - be made available to schools for teaching purposes.
Also an option for the Kreuther Herberge?
We spoke to the operator Lucia Georg (58).
Ms. Georg, the youth hostel association has just publicly announced that it would make its houses available to the schools so that they can streamline the lessons. What do you think?
Lucia Georg:
Schools are not only an important clientele for us, we also feel very connected to the schools through our long-term cooperation.
We are happy to provide our seminar and common rooms for a balanced teaching.
It is certainly of no economic use to our company.
But social responsibility and willingness to help are in the foreground in the current situation
However, the right space is required.
Lucia Georg:
Unfortunately we don't have that many suitable rooms here in Kreuth.
In the end, we only have two rooms that could possibly be suitable for teaching purposes.
And I believe that the teachers are happy when they can stay in their traditional schools.
A lot of equipment and organization depend on it.
If so, the only option would be long-term outsourcing of the students.
It would be most likely to be implemented with primary schools.
Most of the time you only have one teacher per class.
In this way teachers and students could be outsourced for a longer period of time more easily.
Speaking of long-term: What are your plans for the time after the lockdown?
Lucia Georg: In
principle, we can't plan at all, because we don't even know when the accommodation will be allowed again.
At the moment we are confident and plan as if business can start again after Christmas.
We are closed until December 27th anyway - but that has nothing to do with Corona.
The first three and a half weeks in December we have hardly any occupancy, even under normal circumstances - that is always the time when we rummage in the house and do the basic cleaning.
But then a certain perspective would be nice.
What about bookings? Are they there again?
Lucia Georg:
We would actually be fully booked on New Year's Eve.
Basically, however, the guests are very careful.
From January 2nd we would have a package deal - only a third of the house is occupied.
The guests do not actually take any risk: The cancellation conditions are handled very generously due to Corona.
There is probably also great uncertainty when it comes to school trips, right?
Lucia Georg:
All class trips are still prohibited until the end of January 2021.
The schools that want to come in February have already contacted us.
They are all very insecure and only want to make a decision at short notice - the parents themselves still have to be clear about whether they want to allow their children such trips.
How much does the current lockdown hurt you?
Lucia Georg:
The closure in November is already painful for us.
The weather was good, we would have had a few overnight stays that month.
And it is like this: The occupancies for certain periods of time develop gradually.
We recently had a few groups that came regularly in November - also for seminars.
When there is a gap, it's difficult to keep people engaged.
There are then alternatives, or the customers see: That works at home too.
The youth hostels have been hit particularly hard by the crisis because - unlike the gastro - they cannot offer anything at all. Were you able to make up for the losses in the summer?
Lucia Georg:
Looking back, we actually felt very well in the Corona summer.
We were quite well booked by individual guests, families and hikers - especially in July and August.
This made it possible to compensate for the omitted school class and group trips.
We have certainly benefited from the fact that we are in a well-known holiday destination - we have also brought a few good offers on the market.
Nevertheless: There were many requirements and restrictions.
Lucia Georg:
We have a total of 123 beds.
In order to be able to keep the minimum distance in the entire facility, we had to close three rooms during the summer.
Of course, that has already resulted in losses.
Fortunately, after some initial difficulties, we received support from the government.
Without them we definitely wouldn't make it.
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