The Gazetteers Department

Due to the changing economic set-up lunching or dining out has been forced upon many people. As a result, many hotels and restaurants have sprung up almost everywhere. In addition it has become a fashion among many people to take refreshments in restaurants. Practically, therefore, in every town and even in a remote village in Bhir district a restaurant could be found.

These hotels differ in their size as well as in their method of catering to the needs of their clientele. There is thus obtained a wide range of hotels from the ordinary tea-shops to the modern well-equipped restaurants. The former generally serve tea and a snack or two to its clientele; but the latter include even rice-plates in their exhaustive menu. The hotels and restaurants can however, be classified into two broad categories, rural and urban, as both of them exhibit characteristics peculiarly their own. The rural establishments, apart from their small size, are usually ill. equipped and present a shabby appearance. The urban establishments, on the other hand, are found to be better-equipped and deal in a large variety of dry and fresh eatables. Whereas in rural establishments the proprietor himself performs a number of jobs from 'a cashier' to 'a cook', in urban areas there obtains in hotels a kind of division of work in which different persons are assigned different jobs.

The fixed capital of the establishment consists mostly of utensils, crockery, tools and equipment, etc. Investment in fixed capital depends upon the size and turnover of the establishment. It was found that in Bhir town the smallest hotel had invested Rs. 300 by way of fixed capital, and the largest over Rs. 4,000.

Besides fixed capital, the establishments require working capital for the provision of tea, sugar, milk, foodgrains, vegetables and other raw materials including fuel. Generally, a medium-sized hotel in an urban centre requires from Rs. 600 to Rs. 1,200 for this purpose, whereas a large-sized unit requires well over Rs. 1,500. Investment in the hotels in rural areas was far less as they are not generally so well-equipped and well-furnished as their urban counterparts.

The urban hotels provide such items as chivda, shev, bhaji, gathi, wada, sweets and drinks. Some hotels at Bhir, Ambejogai and Parali have also introduced South Indian dishes like amboli (dosa), idli-sambhar, medu-wada, etc. Among sweet items pedhas and barfi are common, and among drinks tea, coffee, lemon and soda are mostly available.

An establishment in a rural area has a very restricted menu consisting of tea, coffee, shev, bhajis and ladus.

The management and supervision of the hotel is usually vested in the owner or proprietor himself, but for other services and menial jobs outside labour is employed. The latter includes a cook who prepares eatables, waiters who serve the customers and boys who clean the tables. The number of persons in each of these categories is determined by the size of an establishment. If the concern is too small, family members are also sometimes employed.

Wages paid to the workers employed in hotels vary with the size of the establishments. But in this district a majority of the establishments paid up to Rs. 40 to a cook and from Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 to other workers. Besides, they also provided meals, tea and snacks to them. Most of the workers, however, were found to work from morning till night. As there was no security to the workers they were found to migrate from one establishment to other.

Rent constitutes an important item of expenditure of these establishments. Generally the rent for a medium-sized hotel in the town ranged from Rs. 45 to Rs. 60 per month. The lowest rent charged was Rs. 7.

The materials required for preparing snacks, eatables and tea, etc., included wheat, rice, edible oil, vegetable ghee, spices, gram-flour, sugar, milk, etc. They were purchased from the local market and the amount spent every month on them varied according to the turnover and size of the establishment. It ranged from Rs. 200 to Rs. 1,000 in towns like Bhir and Ambejogai.

It was found that the net income of the establishment in the district was very small ranging from Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 per month. Generally, the net margin varies with the nature of the season. During festivals or at the time of the local fairs, the business becomes brisk and more prospective; but in the rainy season, it turns dull and yields returns hardly enough to keep the establishment going. During the harvest time, rural hotels obtain a good business and make handsome gains; but the same dwindles as soon as the boom period ends.