Bangkok’s hotels could see a price war to offset heavy losses experienced during the past two months, according to the head of the Dusit Thani Group.
As the current cycle of unrest began in November – along with the tourist high season – hotels have been hurt been and occupancy has fallen.
When life returns to normal however, hotel owners are likely to push promotional rates to seize returning business and recover what they can, according to the CEO of hotel chain Dusit International.
“The government will only do promotions such as grand sales to lure back tourists, but this will not be enough, and hoteliers will try harder to play with pricing,” said Chanin Donavanik. “It’s not 100 percent, but we expect to see this situation.”
Chanin said he hopes the problems are resolved in coming days, not weeks. Continuing instability will have a dramatic impact on hotels and business.
2014 was originally expected to be a banner year for the hospitality industry.
“That hope was ruined with the rising temperature from political problems,” he said. “I want to know what will happen next? When will all the problems end? The average hotel room rate in Bangkok remains lower than in 2007, while other destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia have seen their rates increase continually.”
In recent days, Dusit’s occupancy has been 20 percent, whereas normally it sees 80 percent during this time of the year.
Meanwhile Chanin said Dusit had better start looking to expand its business to more stable climes.
“We realise it is too risk to rely on business in Thailand, so we have to expand our business abroad,” he said.
There are 12 Dusit hotels in Thailand, and the company will soon operate 27 abroad, Bangkok Post reported.
Photo: Walter Lim
