On a mild wintry afternoon in mid-town Mumbai, the stylishly attired staff of The Bay View at Marine Plaza eagerly await the crowds to celebrate yuletide. There aren’t too many guests at this sleek, sea-side restaurant, even at the usually peak hour of 1.30 pm. Christmas is just a couple of weeks away, but the otherwise busy season for the restaurant has turned out to be lacklustre.

Surveying the almost deserted seats at the restaurant, Carl D Costa, restaurant manager (food and beverage), doesn’t pin much hope on this season. “These are strange times. All the social butterflies are missing.”

At Not Just Jazz By The Bay, just a stone throw away, the picture is no different. “Footfalls during the first week of December have dropped 20 per cent compared to the previous year,” says Kaushik Patkar, assistant restaurant manager.

Usually, upmarket restaurants are flooded with guests in December. But it’s no longer so. Bookings during the Christmas season are lower than ever, say restaurant experts. Part of the reason could be that inflation has forced all the eateries and pubs to increase prices substantially over 2010 Christmas. “We had to increase prices of our special Christmas and New Year menu by around 50 per cent over last year,” says Patkar.

“In good times, people would start celebrating from first week of December itself which has now shifted to two days prior to the event, thanks to tight budgets. That apart, a large number of high-end Mumbai restaurants have been finding it difficult to even pay the live music band fee,” says Costa.

The grim hotel scenario is despite the fact that this time of the year upmarket cafes and restaurants offer special packages to woo revellers. Marine Plaza is offering a special menu to lure crowds during the peak period of December at The Bay View, Oriental Blossom and Geoffrey’s.

“Due to a decline in the number of foreign visitors, we are facing a fall in business by as much as 50 per cent. If Mumbai was once known as the party heaven, the situation is quite the opposite today,” said Costa. The rising inflation is consuming preoccupation for most of the city’s dining establishments, said industry experts.

Given how crucial the season is to earnings, Maximum City’s party joints have a plethora of attractions such as special buffet menu, fancy cocktails, and live bands to attract customers. Even the traditional foreign tourist traffic that throngs Mumbai in winter seems missing as hard times in the US and Europe curtail tourist traffic in the city. Customers have become very cost-conscious and wait only for Christmas day to splurge.

While the country’s commercial capital faces the blues, it seems Santa Claus may bring home the bacon this Christmas in other metros. The lower share of finance and corporate traffic seems to be helping upmarket outlets in other metros feel upbeat.

The ITC Sonar in Kolkata, for instance, has geared up to usher in the festivities from December 10 itself. “We are already flooded with enquiries, and requests for prized entry passes to our various events. The pocket pinch will be Rs 2,500 plus tax per person,” said the hotel spokesperson.

For Hyderabad, it is likely to be a better festive season this year, according to Pankaj Saxena, general manager at Aditya Park, part of Aditya Sarovar Hotel chain. “There was a lot of uncertainty last year. This year, the bookings are good,” he said. Lot of hotels had muzzled down the celebrations last year as protests in support of statehood to Telangana were getting heightened. Apart from the normal business and economy related sentiments that impact the hospitality segment, the demand for the separate state added to the anxiety then.

A clutch of new hotels that have come up in Nizam’s city in the recent past will aid in increasing the celebrations with more events. According to Saxena, Aditya Park’s occupancy has been on the rise from 35 per cent in October 2011, to 55 per cent in November and is likely to be around 60 per cent during the year-end. “The increased occupancy will translate into increased sales of food and beverages,” he said.

Lutyen’s Delhi too seems to be bullish despite the gloom surrounding the government’s fate. “We have seen almost 25 per cent increase in footfalls since we have a mixed crowd consisting of people from all walks of life,” said Sanjay Jaiswal, general manager at Urban Pind at Sun F&B, a popular pub in the Greater Kailash Part I.

“Delhi crowd does not cut back on parties and the mood here is less driven by the ups and downs of the corporate world,” said Manu Mohindra, managing director at Under One Roof Hotel Consultants based in Delhi.

With inputs from Ritwik Mukherjee in Kolkata, B Krishna Mohan in Hyderabad)