Chicken fails to spice up biz for hotels in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: As an odd battle of survival between dressed chicken in the shop and a steaming hot bowl of Hyderabadi chicken curry on the table intensifies, hotels in the city are in a fix. An increased demand for chicken dishes, just when chicken prices went up, has put hoteliers in a dilemma over whether or […]

Hyderabad: As an odd battle of survival between dressed chicken in the shop and a steaming hot bowl of Hyderabadi chicken curry on the table intensifies, hotels in the city are in a fix.

An increased demand for chicken dishes, just when chicken prices went up, has put hoteliers in a dilemma over whether or not to increase prices of chicken dishes as well.

A hotel owner from Tolichowki said the public appear to prefer buying ready made dishes from hotels instead of buying meat from chicken shops. Since the prices of chicken and other ingredients shot up after the lockdown, hotels are now finding it difficult to sustain without increasing prices of chicken dishes as well.

However, many are hesitant because this might send the customers back to the chicken shops and in turn, hit their business.

“Customers now prefer hotels rather than preparing at home as it is proving to be cheaper as well reducing the task of cooking at home. But it is costing a bomb for us,” said a hotelier from Tolichowki.

A hotel owner at Bahadurpura said hotels were running in losses because they had not increased menu prices accordingly after meat and ingredient prices went up. “The lockdown already affected us a lot and now the prices of chicken too have gone up. Poultry farm owners point out they also suffered huge losses during Covid-19 due to rumours and less business, so they can’t do much but increase chicken prices,” he said.

A kilogram of chicken (bird) is now sold for around Rs 150 in the market while the meat is sold for anywhere between Rs 230 and Rs 250 a kilogram. “Since the second lockdown, costs increased due to various reasons including hike in the prices of feed, fuel and other overheads,” said Ghalib Saif, owner of a chicken outlet at Chandrayangutta, adding that sales too had dropped significantly as people were preferring to buy chicken curry or other items from hotels. “For the sake of maintaining the repute of the hotel, we are selling chicken dishes without increasing the prices. We are also afraid that we might lose customers if we hike prices,” a hotel owner near Charminar said.

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