Hotels, restaurants, eateries effect sudden hike in food prices in city; Many bracing to up rates tomorrow

Mysore/Mysuru: Next time, if you want to sip your favourite coffee or taste a dosa, it may come at an increased cost.

The sudden hike in the rates of LPG commercial and edible oil and other ingredients, irrespective of public or private companies, has forced the restaurants and eateries to up the rates at least by Rs. 5 per every item on the menu.

The reason is, US-Israel war on Iran, that has elapsed 18 days, beginning from Feb. 28, affecting the normal supplies of LPG, fuel and what not, eventually disrupting the supply chain of various products, having an effect on prices.

While some of the hoteliers have been already charging a bit more, but refrain from making it public, due to the fear of dissuading customers, some reputed hotels with high customer footfalls, have shut doors in Chamundipuram, Narayan Shastry Road, Jayalakshmipuram, Kuvempunagar, near KSRTC Sub-Urban Bus Stand to name a few, owing to prevailing crisis, with no sign of immediate relief.

A few more, who were buying time to take a decision, have resolved to change the rates from tomorrow and many more may follow the suit.

Double…

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Mallesh, a hotelier on Thyagaraja Road, said: “Earlier, we were purchasing 17-kg commercial cylinder for Rs. 1,650 and now it has gone up to Rs. 3,650 (which is more than double). Till now, we had not increased the rates, but now due to LPG-related issues, we have decided to increase the rates up to Rs. 5, effective from tomorrow.”

USP dosa, not for now

Another hotelier Ramu said, “We haven’t thought about hiking the rates, but have stopped dosa, which was our Unique Selling Product (USP), from three days. Neither we are preparing coffee, tea in the evening hours, with the menu restricted to rice based items and idli. If the situation continues, a decision shall be taken either on increasing the rates or shutting down, till the crisis is addressed.”

Hotels  Assn. intervenes

It has been a week since the impact is being felt, with Mysore District Hotel Owners Association and Karnataka State Hotels Association taking every steps to bail out the hoteliers from the pressing situation.

On an average, the hotel sector requires not less than 4,000 commercial cylinders daily in Mysuru and the disruption in supplies, has indeed dealt a heavy blow to the industry. Over 150 hotels, cafes & coffee shops have suspended business for now.

Large employers, employees

A whopping 25,000 employees are dependent on hospitality sector, through 1,500 hoteliers in Mysuru district alone. It is anybody’s imagination, to gauge the impact, if it continues to have a cascading impact.

Like COVID caused crisis

Those who continue to wade through the crisis, are fighting hard to stay in business, for the fear of losing regular customers, like how they had to play hard to regain the customers, they had lost due to COVID-19 pandemic four years ago, beginning from January 2020.