Cuba's privately run businesses — the small restaurants, cafes, bakeries and guesthouses that have transformed travel on the island since 2021 — are under real strain. A tightening of U.S. pressure on oil shipments to Cuba has collided with the country's existing fuel and power shortfalls, and the effects are now visible on the streets of Havana and beyond.
The numbers tell the story. Of roughly 10,000 private enterprises operating across Cuba, hundreds have closed or paused operations in recent months, with Havana — home to nearly half of all the micro, small and medium-sized businesses legalised in 2021 after a near six-decade ban — hit especially hard. Because part of Cuba's electricity generation depends on diesel and fuel oil, blackouts are stretching longer, and businesses that rely on refrigeration or ovens struggle to keep going. Backup generators are useless without fuel, and power cuts frequently knock out mobile and internet connectivity too, stalling anything resembling a digital economy.
The impact on everyday services travellers use is direct. Mandao, Cuba's homegrown answer to Uber Eats, has seen orders halve to around 120 a day, according to its founder Marta Deus. Her 50-person team has bought an electric vehicle to shuttle staff to the office and switched deliveries to e-bikes and scooters. She says importing fuel — even under U.S. measures meant to ease shipments to the private sector — has so far proved impossible for her company.
Not everyone is giving up. Loft Bahía, a hotel, restaurant and cafe complex in Old Havana that opened during the pandemic, is chasing new customer segments, arranging staff transport and reshuffling shifts to stay afloat. Its manager, Laura Salazar, describes a constant cycle of reinvention: the business has faced one hurdle after another since day one, and treats the current oil squeeze as simply the latest.
For travellers, this is worth knowing before booking. Cuba remains open and, in many neighbourhoods, the private sector is precisely what makes a trip there special — family-run paladares, boutique guesthouses in Havana Vieja, delivery apps, wired cafes. But expect longer power cuts, some favourite spots closed or on reduced hours, and patchy connectivity. Booking places with solar power, generators or proven backup arrangements is a sensible move, and spending your money at independent businesses does more to keep them alive than any headline about policy.
