In a year of loss, the SCRLA supported local restaurants and hotels with wins big and small

The SCRLA continues to fight for the resources needed to rebuild in 2021 and beyond

One year into the pandemic, the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (SCRLA) is celebrating the significant accomplishments both local and national that, in the face of enormous loss, supported the South Carolina hospitality industry and built a foundation for rebuilding in 2021. The accomplishments of the last year have been both large and small, providing access to a myriad of resources that the hospitality industry has used to survive and on which they can continue to rely for recovery.

“Restaurants and hotels are the cornerstone of every community, which is why the pandemic’s damage has been so personally felt across our state,” said John Durst, President and CEO of the SCRLA. “We were committed to standing next to our member restaurants and hotels throughout this crisis. We worked closely with our national partners to advocate for relief programs, and our relentless efforts helped secure a variety of options for every South Carolina restaurant and hotel.”

The SCRLA, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), and the National Restaurant Association united the industry to be the voice of every hotel and restaurant in addressing its many needs at all levels of government. Together, they distributed training and operating guidance, communicated safety efforts to customers, and supported industry workers during the hardest days of the pandemic.

Top accomplishments include:

1. Conceiving the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) is based on the Senate version of the RESTAURANTS Act and the original plan posed by the Association in March 2020. This fund will help the hardest hit small and medium-sized restaurants kickstart their recovery. The SCRLA is committed to preparing all eligible restaurant owners to successfully apply for RRF grants.
2. Securing access to $72+ billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. At a time when restaurants were most in need of capital, the SCRLA partnered with our national partners to secure expanded access to forgivable loans on two occasions and to refine the program to meet the specific needs of restaurants and hotels.
3. Designing free COVID-19 ServSafe training modules. The safety experts from the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe training program immediately stepped in to create much needed COVID-19 training. The free courses have been accessed more than 1.3 million times.
4. Establishing a Hospitality Employee Relief Fund for South Carolina’s hospitality industry. The SCRLA partnered with Scofflaw Brewing Company to create the Hospitality Employee Relief Fund which provided grants to hospitality workers who were facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCRLA distributed more than $50,000 in grants and gift cards.
5. Creating the Restaurant Reopening Guidelines for restaurants. The SCRLA and the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) teamed up to write the Restaurant Reopening Guidelines for AccelerateSC. The Guidelines continue to be updated as new information becomes available.
6. Working with the AHLA in the development and rollout of Safe Stay, an industry-wide initiative focused on enhanced hotel cleaning practices, social interactions, and workplace protocols to meet the new health and safety challenges and expectations presented by COVID-19.
7. Increased consumer confidence in on-premises dining with a statewide TV campaign. The SCRLA partnered with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCPRT), and Chernoff Newman on its first consumer ad campaign welcoming diners back to their favorite local restaurants, highlighting the health and safety practices operators and employees are implementing. 
8. Educating with the Palmetto Priority Commitment. The SCRLA partnered with SCPRT, DHEC and Governor McMaster to create the Palmetto Priority Commitment— a formal commitment made by South Carolina restaurateurs to provide a clean and safe environment for their staff and customers to demonstrate the extensive precautions that they are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
9. Saving billions with PPP deductibility. Restaurant and hotel operators who used their PPP loans to pay qualified expenses didn’t have to worry about surprise federal tax bills because SCRLA and our national partners got this loophole fixed.
10. Expanding ERTC to support employment. Employee Retention Tax Credits (ERTC) are key tax benefits used by many businesses. Because of a change pursued by SCRLA and our national partners, our members can now receive up to $19,000 per eligible employee in ERTC across 2020 and 2021.

COVID-19 has wiped out 10 years of hospitality job growth. Our industry has been hit more than any other sector. In December, South Carolina had 53,200 fewer jobs, 43,500 were in the leisure and hospitality sector according to the SC Department of Employment and Workforce.

“We’ve lost 110,000 restaurants nationwide to the pandemic so far, but the combined efforts of the innovative and hard-working restaurant owners and employees in every community, along with these many accomplishments, may have kept our losses from being far greater,” said Tom Bené, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association and CEO of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. “While we don’t expect the industry to fully recover this year, the Association and our state restaurant association partners will continue to aggressively pursue the necessary resources to rebuild the industry. Restaurants are an essential part of all our lives, and in the coming year we look forward to welcoming friends and families back to our tables.”

“The American Rescue plan is a vital step forward in helping small businesses stay open and protecting jobs. It contains many necessary provisions AHLA has advocated for to help put the hotel industry back on a path to recovery. We applaud President Joe Biden for recognizing that small businesses need more help to get through this difficult time. Said Chip Rogers, President and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

While the vaccine rollout has begun, it will likely take months to widely distribute, and travel is not expected to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023.