Hospitality industry in Windsor bounces back for Christmas

Like many businesses across the country, the Castle Hotel Windsor has battled with countless coronavirus restrictions and "detrimental" lockdowns.

But it's not all doom and gloom, in fact, the hotel has showed courage in the face of adversity by turning its car park into a successful restaurant called Leaf at the Castle.

The town is thriving again this Christmas as families enjoy the incredible pantomimes at the Theatre Royal or see the spectacular lights at Windsor Great Park Illuminated.

As the Castle Hotel Windsor manager Sam Goss told us earlier this month "Windsor is a fantastic place to be, it's the best town in Berkshire for Christmas" and we couldn't agree more.

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Businesses like the Castle Hotel have really pulled out the stops to give people what they deserve after such a horrendous year.

They helped key workers by providing teas, coffees, snacks and sandwiches through the bar window and helped feed families by donating leftover groceries to the local foodbank.

Doing this not only benefitted the community but also helped the hotel staff mentally as Sam Goss explains.

Sam Goss, manager of Castle Hotel Windsor

"My team could come back into the hotel and actually volunteer their time to provide something for the local community and just have that positivity in a time which was naturally very challenging, so it was great that they all got behind that and wanted to do something really positive.

"It's been an interesting 18 months. I joined in March of last year and then closed the hotel down within a week. We then reopened in July last year closed down again in November, reopened in November closed down again in December and then stayed closed through until April so it was a big rollercoaster but looking after the team was paramount."

The hotel opened back up again when restrictions eased in May 17, 2020.

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"We created Leaf at Castle which is our restaurant concept", he said.

"It creates a wonderful outside space that meant that we could reopen, we could bring team members back into the hotel doing what they love doing making memories serving, making sure guests have a great safe environment to come and enjoy and we're very fortunate that the owners supported the investment into creating the garden as well so it's been done to the highest standard."

The hotel has certainly bounced back seeing a pent up demand for its new restaurant concept which has been "very very popular and very well received."

But the decisions the government have made has had a huge impact on businesses like the Castle Hotel.

Rishu Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme saw diners in Windsor and Maidenhead buy more than 200,000 discounted meals in August 2020.

The initiative, which saw people flock to pubs, restaurants and cafés in Windsor, was largely hailed a success by the hospitality sector but has since been criticised over claims it encouraged further spread of the coronavirus.

Sam Goss said: "Some of the decisions that have made previously have been very detrimental on the hospitality industry -- massively detrimental.

"Naturally the government have had to take the decisions they feel are the right decisions to take at the time, whether I agree or don't agree. Yes it's been hugely costly for the hospitality industry but it goes back to the well being and safety of the population and protecting the NHS as much as possible.

"In December we went from Tier 1 into Tier 4 overnight which meant we had to close our doors 10 days before Christmas and when you've got food prepared and then for it to go from all guns blazing that we're going to have a fantastic Christmas and there's a lot of pent up demand because of what the population has been through to then boom you're back into lockdown again... it was very costly to the business."

The hotel has also unfortunately seen thousands of Christmas party cancellations this December as well as people cancelling hotel room bookings into the new year.

It comes after 'Plan B' COVID restrictions were brought in across England in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant at the start of December.

This reintroduced the guidance to work from home, if you can and to wear face coverings in indoor settings such as shops, theatres and cinemas.

But these new rules don't apply to businesses in the hospitality sector and people are in fact encouraged to visit bars, pubs and restaurants to help boost the economy during the festive period.

And Windsor is certainly the place to be this Christmas and New Year if you want to have a good time.

Sam Goss explained: "It's been exciting that everything has opened up again and it's busy and on the streets. It's been exceptionally busy throughout July, August, September, October and November. The whole staycation market has been a fairy positive for Windsor too and also our new restaurant concept has been very, very popular and really well received so that's been great.

"December the bookings were fantastic, so much pent up demand for businesses and organisations this December. We were putting on afternoon tea with Santa, we do festive packages, festive afternoon teas and then as the media has now ramped up in terms of the rise of this variant, that has put a lot of question marks into the public's head on whether it's the right thing to be doing to be going out so unfortunately, we have had a lot of cancellations -- into the thousands really going into the next year that people are cancelling.

"We had lots of Christmas parties and then bookings for January and February. We have the space to be able to provide socially distanced events in the upper room we can hold up to 400 people."