Florida Ice and Farm (Fifco) reported Sunday, March 22, that the two hotels that operate in its Reserva Conchal tourist complex, located in Santa Cruz de Guanacaste, will be closed for three months due to the new coronavirus.
These are The Westin Golf Resort & Spa establishments and the W Hotel employing more than 800 people.
The company, that also owns the Cerveceria (brewery), bottles and distributed Pepsi products, Cristal water, juices and liquors among other products, said that it all of its workers will maintain employment.
“35% of these workers will keep their current salary. An additional 59% will have a reduction in their salary to a maximum of 21% of their current salary. In other words, 94% of employees will be taking home a salary,” explained Gisela Sánchez, director of Corporate Relations at Fifco.
“The other 6%, mainly the high salaried employees, will also keep the salaries, but reduced as much as 35%,” the director added.
The temporary closure will be three months, but the company indicated that over time it will be evaluated according to the evolution of the covid-19.
Sánchez emphasized that most employees will be at home, the hotels will maintain only a skeletal staff, ie security, and maintenance.
Fifco is the second major hotelier to announce temporary closure, on Saturday, the owners of the Hotel Dreams Las Mareas, in La Cruz, Guanacaste, announced it was sending its 640 employees home at full pay during the closure.
More hotels are expected to make similar announcements during this “zero season” that began last week when the country closed its borders to foreigners, and airlines shutting down operations in the country during the national emergency.
