Bill Collins said his Best Western Black Hills Lodge in Spearfish usually loses money in March and makes it back during the summer, but this March brought a chance for breaking even – until the coronavirus outbreak reached South Dakota.
Three big sporting events were scheduled in Spearfish this month, and his hotel was fully booked three weekends in a row.
Then the coronavirus outbreak surged, and all three events got postponed. Now Collins is putting off improvements to his hotel.
"Without a doubt that’s on hold and we’re reviewing all things we can do to save money and still get through until better times again,” Collins said.
He’s hoping the coronavirus relents before summer. If it doesn’t, he's thinking ahead about options like a low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration.
Kimberly Tilsen-Brave Heart is looking at SBA loans already. She runs Etiquette Catering in Rapid City.
“We were basically booked solid for March and April. We also had a speaking and cooking demo tour scheduled for April as well, and everything has been canceled,” Tilsen-Brave Heart said. “We literally have no events on the books for the first time since we’ve opened, and it’s pretty terrifying.”
Getting hospitality businesses connected with banks, government loans and other ways to access short-term cash is a focus now for Tom Johnson. He’s chairman and CEO of the Elevate Rapid City economic development partnership. He said Elevate itself has a revolving loan fund that it’s examining as a way to help local businesses weather coronavirus effects.
“What happens to a business when this first occurs is, they have working capital needs,” Johnson said. “So immediately you’ve got to carry payroll resources, you might have fixed costs, and your revenues aren’t coming in to satisfy those.”
Johnson hopes any potential relief coming from Congress will take working-capital needs into account.
