A village pub has taken the decision to only open three nights a week because bills have gone "through the roof". Husband and wife Mike and Michelle Tunnicliffe, who own the Castle Inn in Llangors in the the Brecon Beacons, said they are now paying around £1,600 a month in energy bills - which is more than they used to pay when they were open every day.
"It's flown up," said Mike, 56. "Last year and in 2021, when we were open all the time, we would pay nowhere near that. It's gone up so much." Michelle, 54, added they used to pay around "£1,000 tops" a month to run the pub seven days a week before the cost of living crisis. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
Recalling their decision to reduce their hours, Mike said: "Towards Christmas, we were just looking at the amount of money that we'd have to take a day just to cover the bills - you lose less and make more by not being open. You're burning wood, you've got your gas on, you've got your electricity on, you've got your coolers on and it all adds up."
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The couple, who took over the pub 15 years ago, said as costs have soared they have been "very conscious" of where they can make savings and have tried everything in order to save money. "We've put timers on the coolers in the cellars - we've put timers on everything," said Mike. "We're open now, I've got people in the bar and I haven't got all the lights on. It's like that - it's mad. We used to leave the cooler on all night, seven days a week. Now our cooler goes on at 2pm and we open at 5pm. And then it goes off at 10pm, because it's very expensive to run."
Michelle added that the couple are "just trying to save every penny we can to get us through the winter so that we can be here in the summer - hopefully we can get back to where we need to be." Mike said other costs, such as beer, have also increased massively, and that people's attitudes to going out had changed since the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's just got harder and harder," he said. "Everything's gone up, and people aren't coming out at the moment anyway. How much do you put a pint up to? If you charge more for a product, they (customers) are probably going to come out less. It's one of these catch-22s. We're not making any more money - we're just covering the increase. People think you're making more money, but you're not."
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Throughout January, the Castle Inn - which employs local young people - has only been open between 5pm and 11pm from Thursday to Saturday. It will, however, add additional hours for Sunday lunch from February. "We know we'll definitely take money on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays - enough to pay the bills," said Mike. "But on other days, you're not making any money - we opened one Wednesday and we took £20."
Mike and Michelle won't consider opening on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays until around Easter-time, when trade, they hope, begins to pick up. As for the current situation, a cruel combination of decreased trade and the cost of living crisis means that rural pubs like theirs are "taking a right kicking".
"I think what a lot of people don't understand is that rural pubs and rural hospitality is totally different to city hospitality," Mike added. "We're the only pub in the village at the moment. It's heavily reliant on tourism through the summer, so we do really well, but then the bills don't stop, do they? I'm in a very fortunate position, I'm not on my knees or anything. But I don't think people are aware that rural pubs are suffering. Rural businesses in general are suffering. They all struggle through the winter in general, it's just that this winter the costs have gone up."
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