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Poor booking enquiries worry hoteliers

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Lingering political instability in the country is likely to hit occupancy of hotels in the coming season.

According to hoteliers, booking enquiries have slowed down by more than 50 percent because the election date coincides with the peak tourist season. This has worried hoteliers who have been seeing cent percent occupancy in the peak season for the last many years.

Officials of star hotels and resorts based in the capital said booking figures at the moment were not so encouraging compared to same period of last year. Bharat Joshi, resident manager at Hotel Yak and Yeti, said that average daily booking enquires of 20 to 25 has shrunk to 5-7 at present.

This is not all. The hotel has observed some cancellations of confirmed bookings, including two international conferences. “We´ve been told that cancellation was made because their date coincides with the election date,” said Joshi.



Kaushal K Singh, director-sales and marketing at Gokarna Forest Resort, also said political uncertainty was affecting bookings. “The enquiries and booking are slow compared to same period of last year, as there is fear regarding possible chaos during the election,” Singh said.

“If the election is postponed in the last hour, other political disturbances might trigger cancellations.” He, however, is hopeful that bookings will pick up by mid-August if the situation did not deteriorate.

Reservation for the upcoming season at Gokarna Forest Resort stands at 75 to 80 percent for September, and 80 percent each for October and November.

Similarly, booking at Radisson Hotel Kathmandu is above 75 percent for the September to November period. Officials of the hotel said the figure is discouraging compared to last year.

Hotel Yak and Yeti has received bookings for 71 percent, 95 percent and 84.5 percent of the rooms for the month of September, October and November respectively. The hotel had enjoyed occupancy of 63 percent, 84 percent and 87.5 percent in September, October and November last year.

As only around 90 percent of booking materializes, the occupancy for the peak season, which was showing a sustained growth for the past few years, might go down or remain stagnant, according to the hoteliers.

Pawan Rajbhandari, associate director of sales and marketing at Radisson, said current scenario of booking shows that the upcoming season might not be overwhelming. “The booking is not so promising, also there is the fear of cancellation,” he added.

Raj Bikram Shah, head of sales and marketing at Hotel de l´Annapurna, said the situation is disappointing but not panicking yet. “But if the political uncertainty continued and election date is confirmed, the business will go down as the chance of cancellations will be huge,” he added.

Despite poor enquiries and slow booking, hoteliers are targeting to raise Average Room Rate (ARR) by at least 10 percent in the peak season. "Its natural to increase tariff by 10 percent in the peak season, as the operating cost has been shooting up mainly because of power crisis," said Rajbhandari.

Joshi of Hotel Yak and Yeti said the hotel was targeting above $100 ARR for the upcoming season. The ARR of hotel was $86 in the last season.

source: republica,25 July 2012