The man­age­ment of Grafton Beach Ho­tel and La Cour­land Spas will not be re­open­ing the ho­tels next month.

Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials, a range of rea­sons in­flu­enced the de­ci­sion—from the dis­cov­ery of the COVID-19 Gam­ma vari­ant (al­so known as the Brazil­ian vari­ant), a large num­ber of un­vac­ci­nat­ed em­ploy­ees, along with de­creased do­mes­tic flights and sail­ings.

The ho­tels’ man­ag­er Nali­ni Gal­barans­ingh yes­ter­day told Guardian Me­dia the odds were stacked against re­open­ing now. She could not, how­ev­er, say if the ho­tels would re­main closed un­til 2022.

The es­tab­lish­ments’ con­tin­ued clo­sure means al­most 170 work­ers are on the bread­line and 200 rooms are off the mar­ket.

“If the Brazil­ian (COVID-19) vari­ant is in To­ba­go, if we are still on cur­few, beach­es and restau­rants are closed, peo­ple can­not gath­er, peo­ple are not get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed ...I am open­ing to whom?” Gal­barans­ingh asked.

She added, “Where does any­body keep find­ing the funds to open and close and open and close, that is all we have done for 18 months.”

Asked if mem­bers of the ho­tels’ staff were paid since be­ing sent home in March, she said, “I laid off 170 peo­ple last year...most of my staff in To­ba­go have not got­ten any of the (Gov­ern­ment’s) grants from last year or this year.”

She as­sured that the ho­tels’ man­age­ment had ful­filled the statu­to­ry oblig­a­tions so the work­ers could get their COVID salary re­lief grants.

“If Grafton Beach Re­sort does not pay its le­gal oblig­a­tions, you don’t think we would be in the press and gone through umpteenth au­dits?”

Gal­barans­ingh said the non-pay­ment of grants was af­fect­ing staff with over 25 years of ser­vice at the ho­tels.

How­ev­er, she re­fused to say what per­cent­age of work­ers had been vac­ci­nat­ed.

But Gal­barans­ingh did say that the ho­tels still had to pay bills and the salaries of its skele­ton staff, de­spite be­ing closed.

“T&TEC is still charg­ing re­serve ca­pac­i­ty at $13,000 per month. That is just re­serve ca­pac­i­ty. That is not the full bill. We al­so have to pay an­oth­er $20,000 month­ly for wa­ter.”

She said oth­er month­ly bills in­clud­ed pay­ment to the Copy­right Or­ga­ni­za­tion of T&T for mu­sic rights and mem­ber­ship dues.

“We will re­open the ho­tels when we see some pos­i­tive mo­men­tum. Right now, many things are stacked against us...We will re­main closed for the next few months,” Gal­barans­ingh said.