Star-rated hotels see decline in foreign guests

When the quota reform movement took a violent turn in Dhaka, the star-rated hotel business took a huge hit from mid-July. Then because of the overall situation after the political change of power on 5 August through the student-people mass uprising, the hotels with star ratings became almost vacant. At the same time, social and corporate events reduced too, sending luxury hotels reeling into huge losses.

However, the star-rated hotel business has started to rebound gradually since the law and order situation has improved a little in the last two and a half months, stated people in the sector. They say that the business has not returned to complete normalcy yet, though.

Around 50 per cent or more rooms in most of the star-rated hotels in the capital are vacant even this month. Nor there are many social programmes like weddings. Though meetings and seminars are being held, they are a lot lower in number compared to last year.

Officials from several star-rated hotels stated that majority of the guests in the star-rated hotels are the local and foreign businessmen. There has been a significant drop in the number of foreign guests following the political change of power.

Since business activities have slowed down, there are fewer foreign visitors. Meanwhile, the number of local businessmen who were regular customers has also declined. However, they are hopeful that the business might pick up in November.

Five-star hotel ‘Renaissance’ started operations in Gulshan in the capital a year before the Covid pandemic. With this, international hotel chain Marriot International’s Renaissance was opened in Bangladesh. The official name of the hotel is ‘Renaissance Dhaka Gulshan Hotel’. There are total 211 rooms in this 19-storied hotel located in Gulshan.

When asked, manager of Renaissance hotel Al Amin said, “The business of the hotel had reduced to just 15 per cent in last August. From there, the business rebounded to some extent in September. On an average 40 per cent rooms are being booked so far in the current month.”

He added that as much as 80 per cent of the hotel’s guests are indeed businessmen. The remaining 20 per cent are foreign officials or advisors at airlines and different corporate companies alongside local rich people. As much as 70-75 per cent rooms of the hotel are on booking during normal times.

Al Amin hoped that the business will increase a bit more in November. He said, “Businessmen from the United States, India, China, Japan and Russia are on the top-ten list of our guests. However, after the political change of power there has been a significant drop in the number of businessmen visiting Bangladesh from the US and India.”  

Several sources related to the sector said that the business in Le Méridien hotel, the one nearest to the airport in Dhaka, has also started to recover. In terms of business this five-star hotel has gone through a tough time from mid-July to August. Business started increasing from September again.

Usually, 60 per cent of rooms in this hotel are booked by businessmen while airlines companies book the other 40 per cent rooms for their employees. Around 40-45 per cent rooms are remaining occupied in the current month. Majority of these booking are being done by the airlines after all.

Meanwhile, there are total 278 rooms in state-owned Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel. At normal times, 50-60 per cent of the rooms in this hotel are occupied by guests on a regular basis. However, the hotel hosts meetings and seminar more as it’s located in the centre of the city.

Though there were fewer events of meetings and seminars at the hotel during last July and August, it started increasing a little from September. The crowd of guests at the restaurant is also growing slowly.

Public relations manager at Sonargaon hotel, Mohammad Nafeuzzaman told Prothom Alo, “The rate of room bookings at our hotel had dropped down to 20-25 per cent in last August. The bookings started increasing from last month again. The room booking at the hotel has risen to 50 per cent in the current month.”

InterContinental hotel, situated on 4.5 acres of land at Shahbag area of Dhaka returned with a new outlook in 2018. The hotel was running during the liberation war of 1971 also. The hotel was a ‘safe zone’ back then. Currently there are 224 rooms at the InterContinental hotel.

Usually, 72-75 per cent of the rooms are on booking during this time of the year. However, there are guests in 30-35 per cent rooms right now. Yet, the situation is a lot better compared to the last two months. In August room bookings had dropped below 10 per cent.

On condition of anonymity, an official of InterContinental hotel said that the business at star-rated hotels in Dhaka is usually booming in the last quarter of the year. But the situation this year is completely different.

Though the business has increased a little compared to that in July and August, it’s still very low compared to the corresponding time last year. Alongside the law and order situation, the number of guests in hotels is not increasing due to various reasons including labour discontent at industries, slow pace of government projects and absence of new projects.

Westin is another star-rated hotel located in Gulshan area of the capital. This is a hotel under the Unique Hotel and Resorts group, listed in the stock exchange. Apart from this, Sheraton hotel located in Banani area is also an institution of the same group. Alike the other hotels business at Westin and Sheraton is also suffering for the last three to four months.

When asked, chief executive officer (CEO) of Unique Hotels and Resorts (Westin), Md Sakhawat Hossain told Prothom Alo, “Room booking or guest presence at our hotel had dropped lower than 10 per cent of the total capacity during the student people movement in last July."

"In August that was within 15-20 per cent. The guest presence has increased at 30-35 per cent of the capacity coming to October. So, the company had to incur operation losses in July and August while in September the business was in a state where it neither made any profit nor loss," he added.

Md Sakhawat Hossain stated that 98 per cent of the guests in their hotel are foreigners. Since the number of foreign guests dropped by a significant amount from July, their business took a major hit there.