Coronavirus restrictions for hotels

Due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) virus infections, since March 14, 2020 a state of epidemic threat has been announced in the Republic of Poland by virtue of the regulation of the Minister of Health dated March 13, 2020. On the basis of the said act, as well as the legislation adopted afterwards, many restrictions were established with respect to some sectors of the economy, applying directly to specific group of companies, including those operating in the hotel business.

At this time the Minister of Health has not decided to prohibit the activity of the hotel industry. However, by preventing companies from running holiday and other short-stay accommodation (included in subclass 55.20 of the Polish Classification of Activities, therefore excluding hotels), the direction of possible future restrictions has become quite clear.

While the above-mentioned first regulations relating to Coronavirus did not strictly refer to hotel operations, some of them had a great impact on this industry. By way of an example it is worth mentioning that since the state of epidemic threat was announced, a temporary restriction on activity consisting in preparing and serving meals and drinks to guests sitting at tables or guests making their own choice of dishes from the displayed menu and consumed on site has been imposed. At the same time this ban not prohibit companies from providing services consisting in the preparing, serving and delivering take-out food. Therefore, hotels could no longer conduct one of key parts of their business – running restaurants in their premises. Apart from this, all sport, recreation and entertainment activity has been suspended, thus all clubs, swimming pools, gyms and fitness clubs located in hotels had to be closed.

On March 20, 2020, the Minister of Health issued a new regulation, announcing the state of epidemic related to Coronavirus infections in the territory of the Republic of Poland. Apart from introducing some more detailed restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the virus and at mitigating its effects, neither the said regulation on the state of epidemic, nor the following one announced on March 24, 2020, provided for regulations strictly citing hotel operations.

The above-mentioned state of affairs changed significantly by virtue of the new regulation of the Council of Ministers dated March 31, 2020 on the establishment of certain restrictions, orders and bans in relation to the state of the epidemic. A restriction on activity consisting in providing hotel services within the meaning of Art. 3 clause 1 point 8 of the Act of 29 August 1997 on Hotel Services and Services of Tour Leaders and Tourist Guides (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 238) has been imposed. The said restriction consists in a complete ban, from 1 April 2020 to 11 April 2020, on conducting hotel operations, excluding the provision of services consisting in providing accommodation for persons: i) covered by quarantine or isolation, ii) practicing the medical profession in the meaning of Art. 2 clause 1 point 2 of the Act of 15 April 2011 on Medical Activities (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 295), iii) performing professional activities or official tasks, non-agricultural economic activity or conducting agricultural activity. Guests who have been staying in the hotel facilities at the time the new regulations enter into force must be checked out by Thursday, April 2, 2020.

Generally, it is difficult to imagine how, in practice, the authorities will verify whether the hotels are obeying the new rules (or how guests will be verified).

Due to far-reaching regulations prohibiting specific sectors of the economy from running their business, the Polish Parliament adopted the so-called “anti-crisis shield” law. It is aimed at helping Polish businesses which are struggling with the effects of the Coronavirus epidemic.