Hospitality brand Airy Nest ceases ops in Indonesia due to COVID-19 volatility

Airy Nest Indonesia, a company that manages hospitality brand Airy Rooms, has ceased its operations. From June onwards, purchasing and booking process for both accommodation and flight tickets, will no longer be available on Airy's website and app. A quick check by Marketing Interactive showed that the company posted a farewell message on its official website, thanking its consumers for their support for the past five years.

According to Louis Alfonso Kodoatie, CEO of Airy Rooms Indonesia, the decision was made after the management considered various factors such as market conditions as well as the severe economic challenge. "The company has looked at various angles to ensure the business works during this pandemic. However, the volatile nature of the COVID-19 pandemic forces the management team to take decisive steps and make incredibly hard decisions," Kodoatie said.

Airy Nest said in a press release that it has seen a significant decrease in sales in the past few months, as well as a considerable amount of refund requests submitted by the users. This situation causes substantial business losses. Kodoatie also said that the company had to withdraw from several programmes it had previously undertaken with the Indonesian government in support to work up the nation's tourism sector. "We hope and believe this pandemic will soon pass, and the tourism sector will be revived. At that time, we hope we can continue to give our moral support to the industry," he added.

The COVID-19 situation has caused Indonesian brands to carry out cost-cutting measures such as staff layoffs and paycuts. In April, a Google Sheets document titled "SEAriously Awesome People List - Start Up Layoffs COVID-19 Layoffs" was circulated online, featuring the list of employees from start ups who have been impacted by the job cuts and are on the hunt for jobs. Among the companies the individuals were previously from included HOOQ, Traveloka, and Tokopedia. Almost half of the job cuts (46.9%) listed were from Indonesia.

In the same month, KFC Indonesia said it was reducing and delaying wages and bonus to avoid layoffs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), director of KFC's licence holder Fast Food Indonesia, Justinus Dalimin Juwono said the wage adjustments will be made in varying levels, with the senior management taking the biggest cuts. 

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