January is typically one of the slowest months of the year for restaurants and hotels.

However, many owners say the Omicron wave is adding even more strain to their revenue.

“January’s are terrible, this one is particularly terrible,” said Mark Heise, owner of Rebellion Brewing Co.

“Each day you show up and wonder what type of business you’re going to have to operate in terms of staff and customers.”

Heise said the taproom has been relatively lucky, with only one staff member currently off after testing positive for COVID-19. However, he says customers’ comfort levels are down, which means lower foot traffic coming through the doors.

“Right now there’s just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of stress, a lot frustration and to be through however many waves now, it just takes a toll on people,” Heise said.

Compared to a busy January, Heise estimates revenue is down 50 per cent. He made the decision to cut back the taproom’s hours of operation last week.

“That means some of my staff that were willing to work had to have reduced hours,” he said.

Jim Bence, president and CEO of Hospitality Saskatchewan, said he’s hearing similar things from people in the industry.

Some restaurants have had to temporarily close due to staff getting sick with COVID-19, but for the most part he says staffing has been, “manageable.”

According to Bence, the biggest challenge is getting customers in restaurants and guests in hotels, adding the accommodation sector seems to be struggling the most.

“When you take an already slow season and you cut it in half that means for some really, really tough times,” Bence said.

“One hotel, for example, lost $67,000 worth of business in four days just in cancellations.”

Bence called the situation “extremely dire” for hotel operators in urban centres, who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fixed costs each month. Right now, he said there is no revenue to offset those expenses.