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Hotels in metros running at full occupancy as businessmen rush to finalise year-end deals

Most of the hotels in Indian cities are booked in advance owing to year-end rush. Some hotels have been booked for almost a month. Hoteliers are citing the rush of business travellers who are landing up in the city to cut year-end deals as a reason for this situation.

"I have tried in all the hotels of the city," said Richard Bernstein, who is here to negotiate a tie-up with an Indian company to supply parts to his electricals company in the US.

"Since none had any rooms left, I had to call up an old friend in a PSU and now I am spending the night at his company's guest-house in Nariman Point," he added.

Hoteliers say the rush is because of the yearly business cycle and the increasing number of business travellers.

"The guests are from finance companies, IT firms and media who stay for a longer period. In fact, one of my clients, a Japanese Insurer, has been with me for the last three months," said Anil Malik, GM,ITC Parel.

This has resulted in almost 100 per cent occupancy in middle of the week in hotels in Delhi and Mumbai. The figure generally fluctuates between 60 and 85 per cent in a week. The hotels are facing this condition from the beginning of November.

"It is Wednesday syndrome," explains Ratan Keswani, director of sales, Oberoi hotels, "Most of the guests are from the business segment. So,occupancy drops to 60 to 65 per cent during weekends and pick up as the week progresses. Tuesday and Wednesday are no-hope days right now."

"Most of the hotels have more business guests from abroad, and since they work on the basis of calendar year, most of their negotiations and settings up are done during November and December," Malik points out.

This is for the first time hotels in Delhi and Mumbai have faced this condition. The cities have more hotels, almost four times, than Bangalore and Hyderabad which face such shortages frequently. Hoteliers expect the situation to ease by mid-December.

"Our average rates were around Rs 7,500 during September-October," said a senior official with Leela Hotels, "and after our renovation, the current rate is around Rs 8,900."