If you are planning a stay at hotels in Ahmedabad through online booking portals like goibibo.com and makemytrip.com from December 1 onwards, kindly check with respective hotels if they have really booked a room for you.
Local hoteliers are boycotting online portals from December 1 onwards. They claim that indiscriminate discounts and offers by portals have robbed them of their margins and made business unviable.
Representatives of close to 300 hotels in Ahmedabad will formally announce their boycott on Friday after a meeting. “It has been decided to boycott these portals if they come with unreasonable offers to the detriment of hoteliers. We have asked them to cap their margins as well,” said Narendra Somani, president of Hotel and Restaurants Association – Gujarat (HRA-Gujarat). Accordingly the commissions of portals have increased from 10 per cent initially to upto 40 per cent now. They are also offering schemes to customers without consulting the hoteliers.
Budget hotels are the hardest hit as their room fares are lower. Hefty commission by booking portals not only erodes their profitability, it also makes a loss making proposition.
The period from December to February is crucial for Gujarat as wedding season has already begun, Non Resident Gujarati (NRGs) will be visiting their native places and it is also run up to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held in January next year.
Anuj Pathak, secretary of Travel Agents Association of Gujarat (TAG) said that online portals are making huge losses but inspite of that they are offering discounts to customers. This has adverse impact on viability of hoteliers as well, who are actual providers of inventories and service to the customers.
Ahmedabad alone has an inventory of close to 11,000 rooms against a demand of about 5,500 room. It is mostly during Vibrant Gujarat Summits and other industrial expos, that hotels witness heavy bookings.
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 "If you are planning a stay at hotels in Ahmedabad through online booking portals like goibibo.com and makemytrip.com from Dece")
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