RM130m losses for hotels
More than 200,000 room cancellations expected this year due to Covid-19 outbreak
PETALING JAYA: Hoteliers are bracing for a mind-boggling RM130 million loss in revenue and more than 200,000 hotel room booking cancellations following the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We see the peak of cancellations for the period of February to April, loss of new bookings from April to June, and hopefully there is recovery from June onwards,” Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) chief executive Yap Lip Seng told
theSun yesterday.
“In entirety, the losses may double or more, depending on the progress of the situation by year-end.”
He was commenting on a report MAH released yesterday, which stated that the number of room booking cancellations in Malaysia stood at over 157,000, which also amounted to RM66 million in loss in revenue. This is as of Feb 17.
The top three losses by state and federal territory saw Kuala Lumpur suffering the highest room cancellations with 46,354 and
RM22,174,012 in lost income, followed by Sabah with 32,392 rooms and RM11,550,605 in losses. Penang is third with 17,141 cancellations and RM8,759,933 in income loss.
The report detailed that although the cancellations so far are mainly from the China market, there are also cancellations from the domestic market, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Europe.
“The cancellation reports that we received are based on bookings made and on the books. While the numbers are worrying, we are more concerned about the coming months where new bookings are not coming in and we may not be able to track this at the moment,” Yap said.
He said MAH would continue to encourage hotels to add value in promotions and packages to enhance customer satisfaction.
“No doubt such promotions will eventually take a toll on cost of operations but it is also essential to ensure healthy cash flow,” he explained.
In order to generate more traction towards the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign, hotels are already working with partners to promote domestic tourism to focus on Malaysian holiday makers, he pointed out.
“The earliest initiative would be the Matta Fair Cuti-Cuti Malaysia which would be happening on April 4 and 5. It would see numerous tourism service providers offering bargain prices and rates to fill up seats and rooms,” Yap said.
He also said MAH’s current direction in reaction to Covid -19 is to focus on safety assurance to guests.
“We are looking and capitalising on the positivity of the situation, and that Malaysia is safe for tourists. Hotels without a doubt are equipped to deliver to our guests and we remain as the safe choice for tourists,” he said.