MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS

Hotels and restaurants can be classified as rural and urban; as both of them exhibit characteristics peculiarly their own. Now a days, many people have to live away from their families or have to commute daily to distant places. All these and many other factors have forced the people to take tea and other snacks outside and have finally made the way for the growing prosperity of this occupation.

Mostly, inns or small tea shops established in small huts are commonly found in villages while in the urban area hotels are mostly big in size. The former are usually ill-equipped, and are shabby in appearance. The quantum of food prepared by them is limited in quantity and lacks variety and quality. The number of tea-shops in a village is very small and so they do not face any mutual competition. In contrast urban hotels show a higher level of maintenance and they serve a large clientele with a variety of eatables. Hotels in big towns have to be business like and they always try to satisfy the needs of their customers as best as they can.

The number of persons employed in hotels and restaurants during the Census years from 1921 to 1961 is given in the following statement.

The common ingredients used in a tea-shop are tea, coffee, sugar, milk, semolina, maida, while those serving meals use cereals, pulses, condiments and spices, ghee, etc. in addition to the aforementioned articles. The expenditure on these items ranged between Rs. 100 and Rs. 350 per month in cast of a small hotel. The extent of expenditure on such Hems increased with the sizee of the establishment. Almost all hoteliers purchased these raw-materials from wholesale traders. The maximum expenditure of a big hotel in the district on the same items was Rs. 4,000 per month.

Three or lour benches, three or four tables, few aluminium pots to prepare, serve and store the eatables, and a small crockery constitued the equipment of a small hotel in rural and urban areas. The amount locked up in tools and equipment varied from two to three hundred rupees in the ease of small hotels to often more than lour thousand rupees in that of big hotels. The tools and equipment of a big and a medium unit were composed of a large number of tables and chairs for customers, some cupboards, shelves, crockery of line quality, etc. A few big hotels even had ceiling fans, tubelights and a radio for the entertainment of the customers. But in most cases the furniture used was of an ordinary type and lacked comfort and proper maintenance. Almost all the surveyed units used coal, wood, kerosene, etc., as fuel.

The hoteliers or restaurateurs were required to invest a large amount in the form of fixed capital to purchase the equipment. The fixed capital invested in a big hotel varied from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 8,000, in a medium hotel from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 4,000, whilst in a small hotel if ranged between Rs. 250 and Rs. 500. It was found that the working capital required for the purchase of raw-materials, repairing of furniture and other items of recurring nature was higher in the case of a big hotel as compared to n small one.

The workers in a hotel are generally classified as cooks, who must be skilled workers, waiters, whose duty is to serve orders of customers, boys employed for cleaning tables, washing utensils, crockery etc. and the manager to supervise the unit. The number of persons in each category is determined by the size of the establishment and the size of the clientele.

In eight big units surveyed the number of persons employed varied from six to fourteen, and in the case of seven medium sized units surveyed, the number varied from three to six. In small size units two to three persons were found to undertake multifarious jobs necessary for the working of the establishment. Mostly the proprietor of a small unit with the members of his family managed the whole unit.

The wages paid to the labourers depended upon the size of the establishment where they were employed and also upon the type of work they performed. A cook was paid higher than a waiter or an attendant. A big surveyed unit in the district expended about Rs. 450 on wages and gave salary ranging from Rs. 40 to Rs. 75 per month to a worker of the unit. Besides this, in some cases, especially in big units, the workers were given meals, snacks, and tea twice-a-day.

The net earnings of a hotel are determined by the size of the unit_; the size of the clientele, the location of the unit and also by the quality of its preparations. The net income or the profit of a big unit ranged from Rs. 300 to Rs. 600 per month; whereas in the case of a small unit it ranged between Rs. 100 and Rs. 150 per month.

In rural areas, hotels, being few in number are, generally located near motor-stands or in bazars. The business in rural areas is generally brisk during festivals, or at the time of local fairs The urban hotels generally earn a steady income.

The common items prepared by a hotel in rural or urban areas were tea, coffee, ladu, pedha, jilebi, chivada, bhajias, etc. In addition to this, some establishments undertook preparation of meals and served the meals on rice-plate system.

Most of the units were located in rented premises, rent of these varying from Rs. 15 to Rs. 100 per month, depending on space, locality and availability of facilities such as ventilation.

The hotel owners of Akot have established their union. In Murtizapur also, there is one such association of the hotel owners.

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