The management of Fairmont Hotels that owns an iconic hotel in Nairobi announced that it is closing its operations and will fire all employees over the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the business.
In a memo to staff, the business manager, Mehdi Morad they have decided to terminate employee contracts and close their properties due to the uncertainty of the direction the pandemic will take.
The management said they will close their operations at Fairmont The Norfolk and Fairmont Mara Safari Club due to the spiral effect of the novel COVID-19 and the recent flooding of Fairmont Mara Safari Club.
“Due to the uncertainty of the impact of the global Pandemic will affect our business, we have decided to close down indefinitely.
It is for this reason the management has decided to terminate the Services of all its employees by way of mutual separation even after taking into consideration their loyalty and dedication they have put into the success of the company in the past years,” Mr. Mehdi said on the memo.
From the memo, we established that the employees will get their termination letter next week June,5.
The announcement has come at a time when a growing list of hotels across the country are either closing or suspending their operation due to the effects of coronavirus.
Most five-star hotels depend mostly on tourism, event, and conferences which has been hit hard by the global pandemic. Travel burn imposed by various countries have delivered a big hit to the tourism industry and brought Kenya a total of Sh 163.56 billion last year.
Since March this year, Hotels such as Ole Sereni, DusitD2, and Tribe Hotel closed its operations after the government placed travel restrictions and social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
With the current situation, most hotels have reported occupancy rates below 10% against the normal 75%.
