Showers dampen malls and hotels’ return to business in Pune

Representatives say that decent footfall was seen on the opening day.

Pune: City malls and hotels saw decent visitors on day one after Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) allowed them to restart their business from Wednesday. However, many possible customers chose to avoid stepping out of their homes as it rained throughout the day.

Visitors undergo Covid screening at Big Bazaar in Chinchwad which reopened on August 5.(HT PHOTO)

“Despite a pretty wet Wednesday, we received an encouraging response with customers coming in throughout the reopening day. As a specialty destination dealing in furniture and decor, we usually focus on conversions rather than plain walk-ins and it was heartening to see double digit conversion on Wednesday,” said Mahesh M, CEO, Creaticity, Yerawada.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pune, Chinchwad, also saw customers after it was reopened.

“In Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, we got permission to reopen slightly earlier than the Pune counterpart. Still, the business is as slow as the first day as today [Wednesday] is actually the second day. The customer query count is more than yesterday. We received queries even during the lockdown days from regular customers,” said Aditya Malla, general manager, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pune, Chinchwad.

Along with standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government, DoubleTree has its additional set of preventive norms for staff and visitors.

“We have added SOPs like — Hilton clean stay, Hilton event ready — which is helping people to stay more alert regarding hygiene inside hotel and its premises,” said Malla.

“Good to see people following social distancing norms inside the mall. I am a regular visitor and feel excited to step in again after the lockdown. Today, I brought sunglasses for my sister,” said Vishal Kakaliya, a resident of SB Road after visiting The Pavillion.

“With stringent SoPs in place, we have seen customers more responsible and cooperative in following the virus norms. We are expecting a gradual increase in footfall in the coming days,” said Rahil Ajani, centre director, The Pavillion.