High Biz Rates Under Fire

<B> High Biz Rates Under Fire</B>

By Joyce Wong

<I>Hong Kong</I> - Key industry figures here have called for hotels to justify the disparity between the rates quoted in recent months to leisure versus business travelers.

"Our corporate clients are constantly questioning the justifications between the corporate rate and the leisure rate, especially now when low leisure rates are being advertised, " said Christine Toguchi, director of marketing Asia/Pacific for Utell International.

Speaking before the Howarth Hotel Investment Conference, Toguchi said "there is a great disparity between what the corporate market is being offered and what the leisure market is being offered, and quite often we are finding that people are asking what is the rationale behind that."

Many hotels justify the increase by saying that "they have invested in dataports and business centers in order to cater to the business market," she said. "But how great of an increase should there be?"

For Margaret Brooke, a partner at local firm Brooke Hillier Parker, justifying the extra costs from the hotels to her financial director is becoming harder, despite the extra amenities. "People are looking for value," she said, "not service frills that they perhaps have no need for. We want the people who are traveling with us to be comfortable and safe, but we do not need a whole lot of extras, which in the current climate I find difficult to justify to my financial director. We don't necessarily need a fax machine in the room. We like to have good quality coffee shops rather than up-market restaurants. I would like also to find more hotels automatically including breakfast. People have to have breakfast but it is sometimes quite difficult and expensive to just have a quick meal.