INBOUND specialists in Singapore are seeing a raft of promotions offered by upscale and luxury hotels in the country, which are believed to be a preemptive move to shore up revenue as the global economy continues to shudder.
Alex Chan, director and general manager, Hong Thai Travel Services, told the Daily: “Business has slowed down since July. The corporate market is starting to slow for five-star properties. Next year seems even more challenging because of the uncertainty in Europe. Hotels are offering promotional rates, they are more aggressive and there are more discounts. (As a result), we’ve managed to upgrade customers from four-star to five-star hotels.”
Helen Goh, director of marketing (inbound), Vacation DMC, surmised that hotels are slashing their rates by as much as 20 per cent during promotional periods, including Chinese New Year and weekends.
“On top of special rates, more four- and five-star hotels are offering value-adds such as free Wi-Fi and late check-outs. In addition, many properties are rolling out their promotions a lot earlier than they normally do so that DMCs have a longer lead time to secure bookings,” she said.
However, according to Goh, most of the promotions are aimed at Asians, especially those from ASEAN, who are shunning Singapore for less expensive destinations such as Thailand.
She added: “On the flipside, there are hardly any promotions offered to long-haul markets despite the fact that we’ve seen a sizeable lapse in demand from Europe and the US, probably because hotels believe that even with promotions in place, this would not stimulate significant volume, given the dire economic state of these markets.”
Luxury Tours & Travel’s assistant manager for B2B reservations, Cindy Chin, stated that hotels along the Orchard Road belt were the most active in pushing promotions. “Hotels there have been feeling the heat in recent years, as more corporate and leisure arrivals have gravitated towards properties in the Marina Bay area,” she said.
Chan highlighted that hoteliers will have to up the ante next year, especially with more room supply coming online in Singapore.
Goh also warned: “A flood of new properties coming up in the Iskandar region of Johor and in Bintan pose a real danger to Singapore’s hotels too, and this could radically alter how they price or promote themselves in the near future,” she said.
Representatives of high-end hotels at ITB Asia 2012, however, painted a different picture. The Daily was told that performance was still robust. Mandarin Oriental Singapore and Capella Singapore have both seen growth in leisure and MICE bookings.
