Major hotels in Nassau had to turn away customers over the past several weeks as they had experienced full occupancy.
In cases where there were overbookings, guests were referred to other hotels which had room. But for the most part, there was “no room at the inn”.
Robert “Sandy” Sands general manager of the Nassau Beach Hotel told The Guardian that occupancy is now slightly declining but over the past several weeks the hotel was completely full.
The hotel now has a 80 per cent occupancy rate compared to last year’s which stood at 60 per cent.
“It appears that there has been a built up demand for The Bahamas as a destination and it is manifesting itself in increased occupancy; and certainly, the improvement of airlift to the destination I believe has also contributed to it,” said Mr. Sands.
He said it was not a difficult task to find accommodations for visitors that were turned away.
“There are not many opportunities like this but we had to deal with it the best way we can,” he said. Adding that some of the other hotels were also full when his staff call to see if there were vacancies to accommodate those who had made reservations at the Nassau Beach Hotel.
“We were completely booked for the last two weeks. We had to find accommodations at other hotels, not many rooms, but we did need to find accommodations for the weekends for a number of guests but not many. Business is stronger than August of last year – for the first two weeks in August,” he said.
Mr. Sands said that “this was not a surprise but encouraging. It is a good problem to have.”
Benjamin Davis, general manager at Radisson Hotel told The Guardian that up to August 15, the resort was operating at a 93 per cent occupancy level and expects to finish the month at a 82 per cent occupancy. At the same time last year the hotel was operating at a 70 per cent occupancy rate
“We are about 14 points ahead. We have been very busy and we have had a few overbookings ourselves. We have had some competitive rates. I know that places like Cancun was busy, and other Caribbean islands have many European traffic into them. I know Jamaica is doing well but I am not sure about places like Santo Domingo. I just think that there is a little activity taking place out of the US. People aren’t going to Europe as before. I think that basically our prices are competitive,” said Mr. Davis.
He said the Radisson did not turn away many guest, but in such instances other hotels such as the Wyndham picked up the slack for just one night.
“We spread the load,” he said.
Ed Fields, Vice President of Public Relations at Atlantis said that from the beginning of the year to date ” bookings have been very solid and it looks solid going forward.”
The Guardian also tried to contact Nhajim Khan, general manager at the Wyndham Resort and Larry Williams, general manager at Holiday Inn who were both unavailable up to press time,
However, sources said the hotels were experiencing great occupancy rates for the month of August as that of the Nassau Beach Hotel, but the rates have begun a slow descent.
Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
