Hakka Hall may shut down completely for a year as business hits rock bottom.
KOTA KINABALU: Port View Palace Hall, or more commonly known as Hakka Hall, which has played host to countless wedding receptions, social events and conferences over the years, may shut down for a year as business hit rock bottom due to the Covid-19 pandemic and movement control order.
Its operator Kapitan Lim Vun Chan said he was mulling closing down operations completely for a year to cut his losses.
He estimated to have borne more than RM1 million in losses to date in maintenance and operational costs since the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year which prompted the government to ban social gatherings, events and banquets to curb the spread of the virus.
He said Hakka Hall hardly made any revenue for the past 15 months since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced on March 18 last year, followed by the Conditional MCO (CMCO), Recovery MCO (RMCO), MCO and CMCO.
He said banquet halls were only allowed to operate for a short while at the end of last year before it was forced to close again.
“Business is doomed. We were not allowed to open in January and February this year. We were finally allowed to operate in March provided we comply with the half-capacity regulation and had several bookings.
“We have almost reached the half-year mark and we have catered for less than 10 events, including a small wedding reception on May 1, which amounted to less than RM100,000 in revenue.”
Lim said his clients have all cancelled their bookings for May since the revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the CMCO in Sabah disallowed social events and meetings.
“Our monthly cost used to be around RM200,000 in the past. We have reduced our costs to about RM80,000 to RM100,000 a year, but that is still too much to bear.
“We shall wait and see for a month. If the situation has not improved, we shall close down for a year to cut our losses and start all over again in the future.”
Around 40 employees would be laid off in the closure.
Lim has been in the business for more than 30 years and opened Hakka Hall eight years ago.
Hakka Hall, which can accommodate 1,500 guests in the banquet hall on the ground and first floor, is a popular venue for wedding receptions, conferences and social events, especially among the Chinese community and political parties due to its spacious layout and well-equipped facilities.
He said the physical distancing rule has slashed the permitted capacity to 600 pax in total.
At its peak, Lim said Hakka Hall would cater for about 20 banquets a month, sometimes even two banquets in a day.
“Now we have only had less than 10 small-scale banquets since January this year.”
He said his banquet hall only closed for a short while during Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.
“This is 1,000 times worse than SARS.”