The hotel industry in Sweden lost 61 percent of revenues during the summer months of June-August compared with the same period last year.
A hard blow to an industry that was hit hard already at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
"Only we come into the summer"
Sofia Hjärner, owns and operates Noor's castle between Uppsala and Stockholm.
She describes a turbulent spring, where the company basically lost all conference bookings in just a couple of weeks.
- Our hope was, as long as we enter the summer, may the private market be able to live on.
In advance, it looked bright.
The calendar was fully booked with 27 planned weddings.
But in the end, only four were implemented.
- It was like pulling off a patch very slowly, it was about one a week that canceled, she says.
Reorganize the business
In order to survive, they chose to change the business, from larger events to receiving individual guests.
- We reached a new market in a fairly short time.
We had 15-20 guests on the weekends compared to the 70-80 we would otherwise have had.
- It is not possible to compare but our lowest level was raised.
We were incredibly happy to have guests at all.
Will you survive the fall?
- We will survive but it is incredibly uncertain.
There is still a concern that people will continue to work from home.
It hampers our industry that lives on people meeting.