The hotel industry across key cities in the country has taken the brunt of the IndiGo flight disruptions during the last one week, with the situation not looking up as travel sentiments plummet in the public because of the prevailing uncertainties.
“Business has taken a huge hit in the last one week. There has been a drop of over 20 per cent in bookings in the last one week. New bookings are also not coming in as confidence is quite low,” said Manuj Bahl, cluster GM of Nile Hospitality Group, which runs Howard Johnson and Ramada Encore Hotels in Udaipur city, a sought-after leisure and wedding destination in north India.
“The situation of hotels in the national capital of Delhi is also not different. It’s not just a matter of individual bookings getting cancelled. There were instances of big corporate events and conferences getting called off as speakers and high-profile delegates couldn’t travel,” informs Meena Bhatia, Vice President and General Manager of Le Meridien New Delhi, a landmark hotel in Lutyens’ Delhi.
“Situation has been a bit chaotic to manage as it coincided with the peak travel season in the country,” she said.
“We did face issues as guests who had to check out and leave couldn’t leave, and those who had booked rooms couldn’t travel,” said Girish Bindra, Vice President Operations of The Suryaa hotel in New Delhi. He said that as air tickets went over the roof, guests who were supposed to check out decided to stay put for a couple of days more. “We could have raised the tariff like airlines. But we didn’t do that,” he said.
“More than the financial implications, the IndiGo issue has had an adverse impact on our business forecasting and operational scheduling because of last minute cancellation of bookings and events,” said Ritesh Sharma, GM of Crowne Plaza Today hotel New Delhi Okhla. “There has been a noticeable uptick in last minute cancellations of rooms and events,” he informed.
While the impact was across all city hotels in Delhi, the magnitude varied based on the type of business each hotel caters to. “As a MICE-focused hotel, we were impacted only lightly with a few room cancellation cases,” said Rakesh Sethi, GM of Radisson Blu hotel Dwarka, New Delhi. He informed that the hotel has waived off all cancellation related charges for guests who cancelled their booking due to the flight disruptions.
