HOTELS PREPARE FOR WEAK CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATIONS THIS YEAR

Hotels Prepare For Weak Christmas & New Year’s Celebrations This Year

Mumbai: Post demonetization, the hotel industry is gearing itself for one of the weakest Christmas and New Year celebrations since 2008. Not only have the enquiries gone down, but many establishments are witnessing cancellations. The trend as of now is clearly negative, but the industry is hoping for some recovery as it nears Christmas. Normally, this is the busiest season for hotels in the year with room rentals, F&B and banquets commanding a premium.

“It has been over a month since the demonetization announcement was made and in this duration we have observed a change in trend in hotel bookings. For the first couple of weeks, it was only the restaurants and the Food & Beverage (F&B) units that witnessed a sharp drop in footfalls. However, with each passing week, it is becoming clearer that new bookings are not coming through and also existing stays are being cancelled gradually. Additionally, we have registered 20 per cent cancellation in bookings by foreigners after demonetization in Maharashtra. Although there is a drop in bookings at present, we would like to be prepared for the festive season with enthusiasm, and hope that the effect of demonetization wears off and that the season will bring in cheer to the hospitality trade”, says Mr Dilip Datwani, President, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI).

Lords Hotels & Resorts which is a premium hospitality chain of twenty-six hotels, inns and resorts spread across the country, too has voiced similar concerns.

“We are a mid-market hotel chain catering to wide spectrum of guests including tourists, business, leisure, adventure, pilgrimage among other sections of travellers. Across the country and even for our hotels in Nepal, we have witnessed an overall stagnation in bookings and an average of five to seven per cent reduction in over the counter bookings. Our in-house restaurants and coffee shops too have incurred a loss over the last one month due to customers abstaining from eating out. Also, the restaurants business – both in hotels and standalones – will see a short-term slowdown in growth on account of the reduced availability of cash which is generally driven by high usage of cash. The unorganized inventory of hotels in the industry will be most impacted by this move. In addition, the leisure sector hotels and restaurants segment will see a higher impact on account of the discretionary nature of spending in this sector and the F&B business is the first thing to get hit. There have been fewer bookings for celebrations in our venues and halls as compared to last year, however fortunately those booked particularly for weddings have not seen any cancellations. But, this year we are noticing procrastination over booking decisions for New Year’s celebrations across most of our venues. Hence this New Year’s looks off colour”, says Mr Rishi Puri, Vice President, Lords Hotels & Resorts.