The youth hostel in Possenhofen is slowly preparing for a possible opening.
Because when the hostel manager Christian Burggraf will be allowed to open is still in the stars.
After all, the Possenhofen youth hostel location is not up for grabs.
Possenhofen - The wonderful location on the lake, the good equipment of the rooms - no, a closure of the Possenhofen location is by no means up for discussion at the German Youth Hostel Association.
“Possenhofen is one of the strongest locations,” says the head of the youth hostel, Christian Burggraf.
But not in the Corona year 2020. Burggraf reports a serious decrease in overnight stays and a massive decrease in school classes.
Sales fell by 62 percent in 2020.
Now he hopes at least soon for information on how this year's season could develop.
The director of the youth hostel does not even speak of a possible opening of his house.
At first he only wants “an opening perspective”.
"I and we as an association support the political decisions, but we have to go further somehow," says Burggraf.
“I would like to have a perspective to work towards.
It makes a difference whether you can open in three weeks or two months. "
Burggraf had speculated on Easter, but it will probably be Pentecost at the earliest.
“We have a couple of bookings for Easter,” he says.
Including a language camp whose organizers expected that they would not be able to come.
And a few families “who urgently need a change of scenery,” as Burggraf says.
Some had been rebooked from last year.
That happened again this year: It will be rebooked to 2022.
Hope for the future.
Around 12,000 overnight stays less than in 2019
The look into the past, as the past year looked like, is not so nice.
"In 2019 we had 28 245 overnight stays, in 2020 it was only 10 413," reports Burggraf.
“That is a decrease of 63 percent.” Above all, there were no school classes.
9,929 students were guests at Lake Starnberg in 2019; in 2020 the number was 756 - a decrease of 92 percent.
The cause of the latter is not only Corona, but also the delayed opening until May.
“Hardly anything happens in the school area between Whitsun and the summer vacation”, is Burggraf's experience.
“A few school classes came from other federal states when we were still on summer vacation here.
But the classic school trips just didn't take place. ”The shortfall in overnight stays is noticeable in the sales figures: minus 62 percent, from 1.2 million euros in 2019 to 456,000 euros in 2020. The figures match the results that the German The youth hostel association reports for all of its facilities: 61 percent fewer overnight stays, 60 percent less turnover.
The building in Possenhofen is well furnished and the hygiene concept worked, says Burggraf.
The aisles are wide enough that a one-way street control was possible.
There has been no corona case so far.
Last year, Burggrafs eleven employees were on short-time work.
Now they are slowly starting to prepare the building for the opening, painting walls, arranging it.
And hope that at some point they will find out when they can unlock.
Then it's worth wiping the dust off.
