The hospitality and tourism industry has again been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, with one accommodation provider reporting a 90 per cent loss in bookings.
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A strict five-day lockdown announced on Friday will close a large proportion of the city's restaurants, cafes, pubs and motels.
Warrnambool Best Western Olde Martime owner Raj Patel said he had lost 90 per cent of his weekend's bookings in the hours following the announcement.
"I have 43 rooms and I'm supposed to be full for Friday and Saturday night," he said.
"People checked-in on Friday afternoon and they will stay for the duration of the lockdown.
"Others are cancelling. It's COVID, it's a state-wide lockdown and the last thing people are thinking about is re-booking their stay.
"I've had a lot of people saying they will come back and I'm sure they will."
Mr Patel said he was refunding people's bookings who were forced to cancel their stay and he hoped they would be able to return sooner, rather than later.
"I don't want a gradual re-opening of services when this is over," Mr Patel said.
"I want us to be able to open up just like Perth and Brisbane did. When I first heard the announcement I thought 'why the whole state?' but I understand that if he didn't lockdown the whole state people from Melbourne would come here.
"The lockdown is to stop the spread of the virus so I understand it."
Port Campbell Best Western owner Liz McKenzie said the five-day lockdown was manageable, but any more time would hit her business hard.
"Because of the cancellations, people aren't staying here, eating or travelling around our region," she said.
"This lockdown hits everyone hard. If it's only for five days, I think we can handle it but any longer it will be really hard."
Port Campbell has been had a difficult 12 months amid the coronavirus pandemic with no international tourism decimating the usually bustling township.
"We have to take it day-by-day," Ms McKenzie said.
"People are either cancelling or defer their arrival date.
"But this is what we have to do to keep ourselves safe."
Occupants of Warrnambool City Council-run holiday parks received a text message just before 3pm Friday stating the restrictions would come into effect at midnight.
"If you are already in the park, you are welcome to stay however you must stay through until Thursday," the message read.
Christine Edwards from Killarney Kennels said there were 20 dogs booked in over the weekend, half of which were either cancelled or picked up early within two hours of the statewide announcement.
"We of course understand why people want to pick up their dogs early but it will mean a big loss of income," Ms Edwards said.
"I'm a casual and I spent seven-and-a-half months of last year without work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's hard on everyone, you just do what you can to survive."
Rafferty's Tavern general manager Mark McIlroy said he was devastated.
"This is about the livelihood of our staff," he said.
"We've got a lot of casuals and five days is a lot when you don't have money coming in. A lot of them live week to week."
Mr McIlroy said the snap lockdown showed how far the world was to the end of the pandemic.
"I know a lot of people thought it was all over but we were always just one step away from another lockdown," he said.
"I'm not worried about the business from my point of view, I'm just absolutely devastated for our staff."
Cally Hotel's manager Lucas Reid said the doors would shut at midnight but the kitchen would remain open for takeaway meals.
"We've obviously had some practice so we'll just revert to the takeaways from tomorrow," he said.
"It's not ideal but it's a direction so we will just do as we're told.
"We will be fine. We'll just take it in our stride, there's nothing we can do."
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