One local business' story: 'A sad year'

CLOVIS - Danny Jariwala has seen tough times.

During the financial freefall of 2008, Jariwala was the general manager of a Howard Johnson's hotel in Brooklyn.

These COVID-19 times, though, are more than tough, they're unprecedented. And now Jariwala is more than just a high-ranking hotel industry employee, he has skin in the game as 85 percent owner of the Super 8 and the Best Western hotels on Mabry Drive in Clovis.

Jariwala is also a 20 percent partner in an Alamogordo Quality Inn and Suites, a 5 percent owner of Baymont Inn and Suites in Santa Fe, and owns a 6 percent share of the Hampton Inn and Home 2 Suites under construction in Clovis.

At his two biggest business interests - the Clovis Super 8 and the Best Western - Jariwala is used to the summer being his boom time, with the Draggin' Main concerts, the Curry County Fair, the Pioneer Days rodeo, a horse show, the Custom Classic softball tournament, and relatives flocking in for graduations.

But in 2020, no concerts, no fair, no rodeo, no horse show, no softball, no in-person graduations.

"All the events that come into Clovis," Jariwala said, "those are all canceled. Everything. ... It was all gone.

"Also, when the construction workers come into town they normally stay Sunday through Friday, or something like that," Jariwala added. "Then Saturdays and Sundays our local customers, they come here and they try to use our facilities like the pools or anything like that. I'm being told that we might not be able to open the pools for the entire year of 2020."

Jariwala has 30 employees at his hotels. To their credit, they all stuck around. To Jariwala's, he managed to avoid laying off any of them. Trimming shifts early on in the pandemic was another matter.

"We had to cut our hours for a little bit," said Wendy Draper, who works the front desk at the Super 8. "It was hard for him to afford to pay us, so we had to help out in hours. But eventually we got some hours back."

That was thanks to the Payroll Protection Plan funds starting to roll in during mid-spring.

PPP, however, is far from a permanent salve. Jariwala said he's normally slow November through February, and business starts to pick up in March and stays fairly brisk through October. Now, during these would-be boom months, business is a little worse than it usually is November through February.

Things aren't good. They're just better than they were recently.

"In April it was here," Jariwala said, holding his hand out about eye-level.

Then, raising his hand a fraction of an inch each time he said, "It was here in May, here in June, and here in July. Increments."

Which are better than nothing, but way worse than how things used to be this time of year.

"Oh, terrible, terrible," Draper said. "We have been so not busy. We would be pretty much booked up by now, and with everything going on, with everything closed, it really hurts."

2020 has been that kind of punch in the snout for businesses.

"It's just a sad year," Draper said. "I think it's really sad."

Draper and Jariwala can only wait for better days.

"That's all it is," Jariwala said. "We just hope."