UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 13, 2010. ‘The hotels are currently rather reluctant to provide the authorities with data on how many of their rooms are actually in use. We do know, however, that no more than 20% of the local hotels’ rooms were taken at the beginning of the year. This is particularly true of our new hotels. These figures result from the arrival of the new players on the market and from the increased competition. The hotels are making every effort to keep their rooms booked. They are, in fact, trying to entice the business group bookers away from each other by different means. We’ve witnessed the heads of some hotels clash over the fact that a customer was enticed away through a cheaper price offer,’ Chair of the Yekaterinburg Hoteliers Club Galina Prokhorova observed at a recent meeting dedicated to commercial estate.
‘As a matter of fact, the situation has improved lately. Good management provided, some hotels can get up to 50% to 60% of their rooms booked,’ she added.
Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev noted that increasing the tourist and business traffic was the responsibility of the city authorities.