A Penarth restaurant owner who has seen thousands of cancellations has said they're down to just "a handful" of bookings – on what is normally their busiest week of the year.

Natalie Isaac, who runs restaurant chain Bar 44 with her two brothers, has said "this can't continue" for the hospitality industry.

Up to last week the tapas restaurant on Windsor Road had seen 3,200 cancellations across its four branches – a number which has now risen even further meaning they are losing out on thousands of pounds.

Cancellations due to Covid fears has left the family-run chain will just a "handful" of bookings across their four restaurants.

Weeks ago the festive period had been fully booked, but now they're getting less than half the customers they had originally expected.

Natalie, the Director of 44 Group, said: "In the hospitality industry, we're fighting battles on so many fronts we don't know which way to turn.

"Last week we had 3,200 bookings cancelled, and we have had loads more since then.

"It's really tough, we completely understand the situation with public health at the moment and that people are isolating or being careful.

"We've jumped through hoops to have been open at all since March 2020 - masks, QR codes, social distancing - this can't continue indefinitely.

"We're a family-run business and our staff rely on us - in this position, the worry never really leaves your head."

Natalie told how her four restaurants in Penarth, Cowbridge, Bristol and Cardiff are normally fully booked in the run-up to Christmas.

In fact, just a few weeks back they were - but now only "a handful of bookings" remain after many groups, including large corporate reservations, cancelled their tables.

She said their Cardiff branch would normally see more than 400 people booked to wine and dine on Christmas Eve - but this year, just 60 people are due to come.

Worried Natalie said: "Weeks ago, we were fully booked for that date - now we're going to be virtually empty."

She estimated their takings are more than 60% down on where they would expect to be at this time in the year.

But another big issue for the family-run chain is people "assuming you know they've cancelled" without letting the restaurant know - meaning money goes down the drain when stock goes to waste.

She explained that the bumper takings in a regular December would cover the quiet spell over January and February - but says this year they won't have much to fall back on.

Natalie said: "The worry genuinely never leaves your head - and now we're worried about whether we're heading into another lockdown.

"We have staff who rely on us and they're losing hours because we don't have the customers, it's really hard.

"We'd love to say we'll cover your full wage but we're not a big enough company to do that - our cash reserves are way down.

"At this point it's about trying not to go into a loss-making situation."

Natalie hopes that in the new year there will be new opportunities to claw back their losses and move forward as a business.

She said: "The hospitality industry really is amazing.

"It's a very adaptive and creative industry and try to come up with innovative ways to bounce back.

"But at the moment, there are a lot of very worried people, including us."