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Tuesday, November 14, 2006
High hotel rates normal: Asean summit hosts
CEBU CITY -- The law of supply and demand dictates prices, including hotel rates. Although the head of the National Organizing Committee of the Asean summit promised to find out if hotel rates for summit guests are unreasonably high, he shared other officials' view on the law of supply and demand in defending the higher rates.
"Every single summit location that I've gone to, the rates when we went there in advance were significantly lower than when we went there for the actual (summit)," Ambassador Marciano Paynor said Monday. "Every one is doing the same thing. I think that's normal."
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Paynor was in Cebu Monday to check on the Cebu International Convention Center, the main venue of the Asean summit on December 11 to 14.
His view was echoed by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who said that while he will leave it to the summit organizers to address the alleged overpricing of hotel rooms here, he cannot also blame the hotels for raising their rates.
Citing the law of supply and demand, Osmeña said it is expected that hotel rates will go up during the summit, especially since nearly all hotels are already fully booked.
"It's not entirely the fault of the hotels. There are laws that even Congress can't change, such as the law of supply and demand. But we'll try to accommodate them and see what we can do to help. Although I think we have to let the organizing committee handle it," he said.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) also said it cannot do anything about the rates as the country adheres to a free market.
"The DOT does not regulate or control hotel room rates. It's a business decision of the operators," DOT 7 Director Dawnie Roa told Sun.Star.
Marco Protacio, head of the Hotels, Restaurants and Resorts Association of Cebu (HRRAC), said that even without the summit, rates of hotels and resorts are usually high in December because of the number of bookings.
He said in a radio dyLA interview that the $200 to $250 a night rate is not excessive for a five-star hotel accommodation but is too much for an average hotel.
He also confirmed a statement by the International Press Center that questions on the rates for foreign journalists and media agencies that came out in Newsbreak magazine have been settled with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.
Hotels and resort owners and the organizing committee of the summit have already signed an agreement on the rates for the gathering.
In a news conference, Osmeña said it is only prudent for foreign dignitaries and journalists who want to cover the summit to go through the organizing committee so they can get the best hotel rates.
For her part, Provincial Board (PB) Member Agnes Magpale will talk to HRRAC to clarify reports on unreasonable hotel rates during the Asean summit next month.
Magpale, who heads the PB committee on tourism, admitted that as it is, Cebu's hotel rates are already higher than other tourist destinations. But operators tell them that the prices are dictated by the market and that people still come.
"As I see it, the problem is not at the level of the hotels," she said, adding that she will support any complaint, if any, that HRRAC will have about the matter.
Carlo Borromeo, press relations manager of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, said the hotel is implementing the usual peak season rate because December is always a peak month on the tourism calendar.
"We did not increase our rates. Our room rates usually increase during peak season because of the rise in demand," he said in an interview.
Renee Villacin, press relations manager of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, corroborated Borromeo's statement, saying the hotel is using their rack rates or published rates for the peak season.
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Monera, in a separate interview, said they haven't tackled the matter yet but believes that the rates are "within the context of letting free market forces operate."
Robert Go, regional governor for Region 7 of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged hotels and resorts to implement the normal rates to encourage the delegates to the summit to come back for leisure and business in Cebu.
Some tourism stakeholders in Cebu have been complaining of the "really high" room rates in Cebu compared with the rates of the resorts in Thailand and Malaysia.
This, they said, is one of the reasons Cebu cannot attract get as many visitors as other countries in Asia.
But Koos Klein, Hilton International's president for the Middle East and Asia Pacific operation, said in an interview that Cebu does not have to project itself as a cheap tourist destination to compete with other international destinations.
"Cebu has been getting the interest of tourists worldwide, especially after what happened to Thailand. But you (Cebuanos) are underselling yourself. Hotels and resorts should rate their services according to the level of experience their guests will have in the hotel. And the hotels in Cebu have lots to offer their guests. So why position yourself as a cheap destination?" he said. (JBN/LCR/JPM of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (November 14, 2006 issue)
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