Hotel owner Petter Stordalen's latest addition to Malmö's hotel scene – Quality Hotel The Mill at the old Concert Hall – will close at the end of the week. The reason is that the hotel is basically empty due to the corona crisis. 

”"But we will open again, no question about it," says hotel manager Burim Sumiq.

It's been just over a year since hotelier Petter Stordalen reopened the completely renovated Quality hotel in the old Concert Hall in Malmö, now under the new name The Mill, which alludes to nearby Möllevången.

Then he told Sydsvenskan about how his hotel chain Nordic Choice planned to invest close to four billion kronor in the Öresund region over the next 24 months.

Then the coronavirus came and the hotel market collapsed in a few weeks.

”"We have gone from 60-65 percent occupancy down to maybe five percent, so we are closing from April 24 to save the situation when demand for rooms and conference rooms is not very high," says Burim Sumiq, CEO of Quality Hotel The Mill.

Existing reservations will be transferred to the Choice chain's other hotels in Malmö until the crisis is over. In the meantime, all staff have been either laid off or terminated.

”"The decision is valid until the end of May, but further decisions will be made as the situation progresses. At the beginning of May we will know if it will be June, but as the situation is, it could just as well be that things turn around and we can open up fairly immediately," says Burim Sumiq.

The downturn has hit the entire hotel industry hard, and in Helsingborg, the company that runs the Best Western Hotel Duxiana went bankrupt at the beginning of the crisis.

The Mill is not alone in temporarily closing. Elite Hotel Residens in Malmö has switched its phone lines and is currently transferring its guests to the neighboring Savoy hotel, which is part of the same chain.

At other hotels we have tried calling, no one answers, and guests are only greeted with a pre-recorded message about "reduced service" for an indefinite period.

Source: di.se