Minnesota hotels and restaurants begin to recuperate from pandemic, but long road still ahead

A new survey by Hospitality Minnesota shows many restaurants and hotels are still facing challenges two years into the pandemic.

Rock Elm Tavern in Plymouth is starting to see a rebound in returning customers, but co-owner Troy Reding says its been a long two years of forced shut downs and limitations that reduced revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our revenue may be back but for sure this being a viable business isn’t back until 2023 at the earliest,” Reding said.

Experts project the hospitality industry in Minnesota lost $15 billion over the last two years. Hospitality Minnesota just wrapped up a survey of resorts and campgrounds hotels and restaurants, and there are still challenges.

“The resort and campground sector continues to outperform all the others here,” said Ben Wogsland, Executive Vice President of Hospitality Minnesota. “Over the last two years there a winners and losers and it’s affected different industries and folks differently in an uneven fashion.”

Wogsland says half of the hotels and restaurants surveyed don’t expect to return to normal until 2023.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, we know this is still going to be a multi-year recovery for this industry, particularly the restaurants and hotel sector here,” Wogsland said.

Staffing isn’t making things any easier.

The survey shows roughly 32-thousand employees who were working in the hospitality industry pre-pandemic aren’t anymore.

“We’re hearing from a lot of operators in the hotel and restaurant space that they’re concerned about being able to meet customer demand here come spring, come summertime if they don’t have people,” he added.

For Reding, business as usual is the goal, but he says it’ll require some help.

“Go out and utilize, especially your local independent restaurants, they’re the ones struggling the hardest, and be patient with them because they are all short-staffed,” he said.