Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to appear before you.
My name is Marc Staniloff. I live in Calgary and I own Superior Lodging Corp.
My company owns the franchise rights in Canada for the following brands: Super 8 hotels, Travelodge Hotels, and Microtel Inns and Suites.
All of these brands are part of the Wyndham Hotel Group. There are a total of about 525 Wyndham hotels in Canada, of which 255 are under my franchise.
I want to point out that all the Super 8, Travelodge and Microtel hotels are all individually owned by local operators and are all Canadian owned. My company owns interest in about 30 of these different hotels.
Currently there are 100 Wyndham hotels closed in Canada, of which 20 are Super 8, 21 are Travelodge and two are Microtel. About 20% of the hotels under my brand are closed right now. The other brands—Marriott, Hilton, and all the other brands—have similar numbers.
About 20%-25% of hotels in Canada are currently closed.
Currently occupancy in the hotels that are open is running at about 9%. That gives you the context of the current state of the industry in Canada.
In addition to the COVID crisis, we are also getting slammed by the oil and gas markets in the resource-rich communities where we have hotels.
We have several big issues today.
The first is that we need to get businesses open as soon as possible. I know this cannot happen all at once, and I think it needs to be on a measured basis, both in regions and in sectors, depending on the different companies and businesses.
As well, we need to get people travelling again, both by car and by plane.
Then the next big issue is what this recovery will look like. This is going to be a very long haul, and many of our businesses might not make it through.
We think we need to ensure that our sectors can fully benefit from the wage subsidy program and we need to recognize that the recovery of our sector will likely be slow. Thus, we need to extend the duration of the wage subsidy for businesses that will take longer to recover. For example, until revenue losses are below 30%, the subsidies should stay in effect. This will ensure that we rehire our staff and keep them.
We also need to make adjustments to the loan criteria so that banks actually approve us. Right now it's way too risky and the process is way too cumbersome.
First, we need to find a way to have the loans based on the property rather than at the level of a corporate entity. A number of corporate entities own a number of hotels, and as a result of the way the loan process is set up, if they own 10 hotels, they are only entitled to one loan.
Second, the loan process is such that the borrowers have to qualify for the loan. Hotels today are not going to be able to qualify, and as this goes along, they will be less and less likely to be able to do so. We need these loans to be simple and based on a simple checklist and verification of solvency as of March 15.
We need relief, and by that I mean interest forgiveness. I know a couple of the other witnesses have mentioned the same thing. We cannot just pile on more debt and kick the can down the road. This is a recipe for disaster, so for the loans I just mentioned, there has to be a forgivable portion and there has to be a formula for that.
For us to have a solid recovery package, we feel we need the government to provide marketing funds for Destination Canada to fully advertise Canada. We want people who live in Canada to travel in Canada.
In addition, we need a subsidy to support low room rates to incentivize travel. The GST could be eliminated for an interim period, and the deductibility of entertainment expenses could be considered.
Thank you.