Room bookings at five-star hotels down

Room bookings at five-star hotels in the capital are down in the first two months of 2014 compared to bookings in the same period of last year.
January-February and May-September are considered off-season in Nepali hospitality industry.

Hotel Yak and Yeti has received 40 percent and 35 percent bookings for January and February, respectively. The hotel had enjoyed around 55 percent occupancy in both months last year. “Tourist flow is gradually declining as tourisms season ends form December,” he said, adding, “We have received fewer bookings for coming months compared to last year mainly because of political uncertainty here and drop in arrivals from Europe, the main market, which is still under recession.” He further added that most of the bookings for the upcoming months have come from Chinese visitors.

Likewise, The Everest Hotel has also reported drop in booking for January. “Booking for January currently stands at 65 percent. We had enjoyed 75 percent occupancy during the month last year,” Srijana Maharjan, sales coordinator of the hotel, said.
The hotel, however, has received 100 percent booking for February. “Despite off-season, we have received full booking for February. In February last year, we had enjoyed 60-65 percent occupancy,” she added.

According to Maharjan, most of the bookings for January and February have come form the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, and Exhibition (MICE) segment by Indian and Bangladeshi groups.
Hotel de l´Annaupurna has received 70 percent bookings for January and February months. It had enjoyed around 75 percent occupancy in the two months last year.
Pratyush Pandey, front desk officer at the hotel, said unstable political situation has affected tourist flow in the country. “We used to host number of international conferences during January and February. This year we have received fewer bookings for such events,” he added.

Most of the bookings at Hotel de l´Annapurna for January and February have come from Indian visitors.

Hoteliers, however, are optimistic that the flow of tourists will increase within a couple of months when the political situation becomes stable.

source:republica,25 Dec 2013