Guyana Observer News

Proposed Marriot will kill the local hotel industry

Thursday, 29 July 2010

… Jagdeo upset his friends did not get Pegasus – Badal

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Should the proposed Marriot Hotel become a reality it will inevitably kill the hotel industry in Guyana. This is according to Chief Executive Officer of the Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal, who said that President Bharrat Jagdeo is upset that his friends, “one of whom is facing federal charges in the US,” did not acquire the Pegasus. He explained that Guyana has a relatively fixed hotel occupancy rate, which averages around 30 per cent nationwide. The occupancy rate at the Pegasus, according to Badal, averages in the vicinity of 50 to 60 per cent. Badal explained that Guyana is not a tourist destination. The people who travel to Guyana generally conduct business and hold conferences with the few boosts such as when there was the Cricket World Cup.

The Pegasus CEO said that the advent of the Marriott Hotel would not bring any significantly new traffic to Guyana.
Badal said that as it relates to the hotel rooms in Guyana, there currently is far more that the demand hence he questions the reason why the President would want to invest tax-payers money into the venture that would only serve to cripple the industry.
Should local hotels be made to compete with the Marriott Hotel then they will soon be operating at, or below break-even and will have to eventually close given that they would not be sustainable.
On the argument of job creation by the Marriott, Badal explained that there would be no such thing. Rather it will just be a displacement of the personnel already in the Hotel Industry.
He said that this was the argument when the Buddy’s International Hotel was built with the President touting the creation of some 300 jobs.
Badal said that when that hotel was built some of the Pegasus’s employees went over to the now Princess Hotel.
“There will be no creation of jobs rather they would just be shuffling around workers who are already in the hotel business.”
Badal pointed to the fact that at present the Princess Hotel has nowhere close to the level of employment that was projected by the President.
Asked his opinion as to the motive behind the President’s attack on him and the Pegasus, Badal said that it has escalated ever since he acquired the Pegasus Hotel and that President Bharrat Jagdeo was just upset because the group of his friends that were trying to acquire the Hotel failed to do so.
Badal said that they were against his acquisition of the hotel to the point that calls were made to the previous owners to persuade them not to sell to him.
The Pegasus CEO said that were that group to have acquired the hotel then there would not have been the current tirade against the Pegasus.
He said that there would not have been any talk about “red water” or “leaky air conditioners.”
Badal pointed to the fact that he is currently investing some US$8M in the Pegasus and as the demand for more rooms increases the management will invest accordingly.
Badal said that he is confident in the reputation of the Pegasus which it has obtained over the past forty years and as such would not seek to further engage in any back and forth with the President.
Elaborating a bit on the fact that the reputation of the Pegasus is solid, Badal said that when the hotel had the Le Meridien branding, the marketing strategies under that label only attracted about five per cent of the then occupants and as such it had to be reverted back to the Pegasus.
He said that even as the President bashes the hotel, the government continues to receive its 4.96 per cent dividends as minority shareholder.
Jagdeo was recently adamantly advocating the need for a modern hotel like the Marriott and not one plagued by a multitude of problems, “like the Pegasus.”
Jagdeo said he was not surprised at Badal’s reaction to the Marriott project. Badal had blasted the President for what he called the misuse of taxpayer’s money.
“If I were him (Badal), I’d probably try to kill every other effort for any other hotel in the country to be built, because it means I can continue to have a monopoly, charge high rates and not refurbish, and give frankly speaking, crappy service that so many foreigners have complained about,” Jagdeo said.
“And I am not blaming the staff at Pegasus, because they have very little to do with it. It is the money that they need to spend on refurbishing the place…I have travelled a lot – when they turn on the tap, the sink filled with red water and when they turn on their AC in the room, like some Prime Ministers complained to me, it is soaking wet; it drips all the time, because of the level of condensation,” he added.
He referred to criticism against the Marriott project as a reflection of what happened when the government sought to assist in the building of the Buddy’s (now Princess) hotel.
Now, Jagdeo said 300 Guyanese are employed there (Princess), a figure which Badal is adamant that the President is misrepresenting.

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