Bala Chauhan for DHNS

Bangalore, Dec 29: The season of celebration and joy - with Christmas and New Year in its fold - is the bleakest for the hospitality industry in metropolitan cities, especially in the city. Star hotels in the City report drastic fall in their occupancy/booking levels ...
 
The season of celebration and joy - with Christmas and New Year in its fold - is the bleakest for the hospitality industry in metropolitan cities, especially Bangalore. Star hotels in the City report drastic fall in their occupancy/booking levels - by 30 to 50 per cent, or even lower - from mid-December to the first and second weeks of January.

The main reason: There aren’t any foreign corporate travellers coming into the City during this period. In comparison to the other gateway cities like Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore takes the worst beating because it is not a tourist destination. A quick check across five star hotels brings out the sorry state of affairs, of empty rooms and near-vacant lobbies.

Occupancy

Head (Sales and Marketing) of Leela Palace, Sunil Prabhakar, says occupancy/booking in the hotel between December 20 and January 10 has nosedived to below 50 per cent.

“We are hit because our business largely depends on the international (read: business and corporate) travellers and this is their holiday period. The losses are huge and we can’t make up for them. When we draw up the budget for the year, we’ll include these losses,” he said. Area Director, Taj Hotels and GM, Taj West End, P K Mohan Kumar, has much the same story to tell, but sounds optimistic.

“We, too, are hovering around the 50 per cent mark but we’ve turned it into an opportunity given the fact that all other tourist destinations choke during the season. We’ve developed holiday packages for the entire family, and are trying to build Brand Bangalore as an ideal weekend holiday destination”, he added.

Down shutters

The Park Hotel General Manager Herbert Lemuel says his hotel’s occupancy falls between “30 to 40 per cent because multinational firms close down during this time.

Even the international flights report low passenger traffic. We pick up in the first week of January.”

Lean fortnight

The lean fortnight, he adds, is used to spruce up the rooms, banquet halls and public areas.

The hotels try and woo domestic travellers by dropping tariff rates by 25 to 30 per cent but they find it a hard call.

Says Paul, Head (Sales and Marketing) of the Oberoi Supratim: “We try and promote alternative leisure packages for the domestic market and any conferences around. Quite a few leading Indian firms hold conferences during this time because of the discounts,” .

The Chancery group of hotels also share similar statistics. The losses incurred are not made up because the figures are huge.

Only positive

“The only thing going in favour of Bangalore is its weather. Delhi during winters is too cold and Mumbai, people say, doesn’t give you the feel of winter. Bangalore attracts people because of its weather,” says Mr Paul.

And though the hotels gear up to face a bleak business season, they try to make up for the slack mostly on their food and beverage services.

The truth is that behind the glitz of Christmas and New Year, hotels in Bangalore go through a rather hostile winter.