INITIATIVE Hospitality industry continues to gain momentum

Dorint Hotel Group files constitutional complaint in Karlsruhe with urgent application for insolvency protection

Dirk Iserlohe, sole director of HONESTIS AG, on the current situation:

“Hotel businesses are special-sacrifice entities that have been effectively closed for many months for the greater good. At least in the case of the “non-small-medium enterprises”, i.e. the larger medium-sized groups of companies, the state aid is insufficient due to the limitations. With a cap of bridging aid III at 12 million euros for six months, these companies cannot survive, especially since the obligation to file for insolvency has been reactivated.”

For example, Group CEO Dirk Iserlohe is currently experiencing that the Dorint Hotel Group is only able to offset approximately 37 percent of its losses with the help of the current subsidy programs.

Who belongs to your initiative?
Informally, several hoteliers have joined irregularly in dependencies to a digital meeting since the beginning of the pandemic, talk about the current problems, needs and discuss the possibilities of attention creation; this is especially true for the larger medium-sized businesses, which are disadvantaged by the state aid programs Überbrückungshilfe I, II as well as by Limits. One of the last actions were the full-page advertisements in the Welt and in the FAZ of 21.04.2021.

What should policymakers decide now?
Politicians would first have to immediately reactivate insolvency protection for companies affected through no fault of their own. In addition, it would be urgently necessary to decide on the extension of bridging assistance for those companies that have received disproportionate compensation due to the limitations of the support programs.

How can distressed businesses be helped?
Funding should cover the entire pandemic period and would have to help everyone equally without limits.

How can the 2.4 million employees in the hospitality and hotel industry be helped in concrete terms?
Concrete help would be compensation schemes as well as clear, reliable and nationwide programs to open up the hotel and restaurant industry under the current conditions of the pandemic.