Manitoba’s elimination of mandatory dining room hours will help small hotels by providing a solution to a nagging problem. Effective October 17, MLCC (Manitoba Liquor Control Commission) Liquor Licensing Regulations will no longer require minimum hours of operation of a licensed dining room as it relates to a beverage room on the same premises. In announcing the change, the Manitoba Hotel Association said, “Many hotels, particularly smaller properties, have difficulty staffing an unprofitable dining room when most of the activity in the hotel is in the beverage room. The hotel must maintain availability of food.” The change in regulation provides operators some flexibility to avoid breaching the Liquor Control Act in the event the dining room must be closed unexpectedly for a catering function, deliveries, funerals, emergencies and absent employees, all of which could result in the hotel not being able to staff both the dining room and beverage room every day of the year.
