A popular hotel in the Lake-side city of Kisumu has sent home its entire staff following a tough business environment.
According to Daily Nation, Sunset Hotel general manager Joseph Oduor explained that they resorted to the move after the hotel had continuously made losses for 15 years.
He further revealed that the more than 50 employees at the 40-year-old hotel had become redundant and that the management had been unable to sustain the venture for over a decade.
The hotel’s management sent a letter to the Ministry of Labour on Friday making the decision due to “constant reduction in the flow of business”.
“The hotel has been struggling for quite a while. We have not paid our workers’ salary since November last year,” stated Oduor.
He, however, refuted claims that the hotel was closing down explaining that it had only failed to upgrade itself to the latest standards.
This comes just a year since Auditor General Edward Ouko declared the hotel, located in the leafy suburbs of Milimani estate, bankrupt after accumulating losses to the tune of Ksh117 million.
This latest decision has caused confusion among suppliers of the hotels whose dues run into millions of shillings.
In the hotel’s defence, Oduor explained that Sunset had lagged behind while customers preferred modern hotels with state-of-the-art facilities.
“How do you run a hotel without refurbishment? This hotel was built in the 1970s, which means the quality of standards has gone down making clients disappear,” he posed.
