Sinulog, Asean Summit to Cause Room Shortage in Cebu Hotels

CEBU CITY, Dec 22 Asia Pulse - The Sinulog festivities and the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, both scheduled for January, will cause a shortage of rooms in hotels in Metro Cebu.

The demand for rooms in January is expected to reach 7,000, said Marco Protacio, president of the Hotels, Restaurants, and Resorts Association of Cebu (HRRAC).

Cebu, however, only has around 5,000 hotel rooms, Protacio said.

The room shortage would force hotels to apply a first come, first served policy when entertaining guests next month, he added.

Protacio said clients who are able to pay in advance would have priority.

However, the policy would not apply to delegates of the ASEAN summit, whose reservations were carried over from December, the original summit schedule, said Protacio, who is also the general manager of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.

He noted summit delegates have already paid in full or placed a 50 per cent advance payment.

But with summit-related reservation already in place, there are very few rooms remaining.

"Most hotels are now worrying about how to manage the room inventory," he said.

The ASEAN Summit was originally scheduled from December 10 to 14. The summit's National Organizing Committee (NOC), however, moved the summit to January 10 to 14, citing a typhoon that passed through Cebu right before the summit was to be held.

The HRRAC earlier reported losses when the summit did not push through on its original dates. Hotels had to turn away clients due to reservations by summit delegates, which eventually did not materialize.

To ensure that this would not happen again, Protacio said clients who book rooms would have to give full payment in advance.

"Those who guarantee the rooms first will get top priority," he said.

"You will know who are serious in bookings the rooms," Protacio added.

Even through the Sinulog will happen a week after the summit, Protacio explained that festival visitors usually start arriving by December and would stay until after the Sinulog grand parade, putting them in conflict with the Summit.

"Ideally Cebu needs 7,000 rooms to be able to handle an international convention and Sinulog at the same time, but have only 5,000 available rooms of tourist quality," he added.

He noted the smaller pension houses may be able to help answer the demand, while balikbayans (overseas Filipinos) could opt to stay in houses of relatives instead of hotel rooms.

(PNA)

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