SINGAPORE: Rain or shine, the numerous restaurants and bars on Sentosa’s Siloso Beach are open for business.
Food and beverage outlets along the stretch usually see more visitors during the year-end peak holiday season, especially with group bookings for personal and business events such as Christmas parties or corporate dinners.
But wet weather in recent weeks has been a downer for these businesses.
Rumours Beach Club, for instance, has seen up to half its customers cancel reservations during persistent periods of rain.
The usually busy establishment, which can accommodate about 500 people outdoors, specialises in serving Indonesian Jimbaran cuisine.
“For us at the beachfront … everybody is much more in anticipation of weather issues,” said operations director Stefano Alvin Manafe.
“We are trying our best to accommodate (customers) and provide shelter as much as possible.”
Most of its premises are outdoors, including three swimming pools. The club erects portable tents to provide temporary relief for patrons when it pours.
It is also looking to build more permanent shelters for its diners to supplement its indoor seating of about 100.
Mr Manafe added that it is difficult to manage manpower as weather predictions can be inaccurate.
The club reduces staffing by about 20 per cent during rainy days, but has to scramble for reinforcements in the form of part-timers when the sun unexpectedly emerges again.
On the bright side, he said Sentosa helps in increasing footfall by organising activities to attract visitors, such as music events and the ongoing GrillFest – a street culinary experience that ends this Sunday (Dec 8).