Sophie Sun and Yannick Kee Mew took over as the franchisees of Quest Griffith in March, just as COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.

"It's been a challenge," Ms Sun said.

Everyone they've met in Griffith to be friendly and they believe the hardest part is finally over.

"The worst thing has been the travel ban and the cancellations," Ms Sun said.

Ms Sun said emails asking for cancellations were relentless as the travel bans kept people in place.

"Most hotels have a 24 hour cancellation refund policy, but many customers weren't able to get to Griffith because their flights were cancelled and it wasn't the customer's fault," she said.

Before they arrived in Griffith, Ms Sun and Mr Kee Mew have had plenty of experience working in hotels around the world, including the Park Hyatt. They met in Sydney while they were both studying and working two to three jobs a week to pay for their study. However that experience didn't prepare them for how COVID-19 would impact their business.

"We really appreciate the landlord's support, they've given us a discount, it's helped a lot," Ms Sun said.

"And we didn't want to make staff redundant, we are trying our best to keep all our staff on."

Keeping the staff on and the travel bans has meant dipping into their savings to keep everyone working, as well as working seven days a week themselves, but it's an investment they believe will pay off in time.

Added to the mix were their three children who have since started school.

"We enrolled the children in school and then the school called to say they weren't to come to school, so we've been balancing three kids and a business," Ms Sun said.

Being only new to town, they didn't know many people and Mr Kee Mew travelled to Sydney and back in a day to ensure there was hand sanitiser for customers, and disinfectant and gloves for staff.

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They also turned to their attention to their business strategy and changed it to reflect how the pandemic had changed daily life.

"A lot of our business was corporate and many people are now working from home," Ms Sun said.

Focusing instead on people travelling for leisure, designing a VIP package for them and adjusting prices helped change the outlook.

And in May they were among the best performing Quest businesses in NSW. As restrictions have eased Ms Sun said things were looking up and since mid-June conferences have been able to be held again at Quest.

They're now looking forward to raising their three children in Griffith.