Some luxury chains are decreasing their services and category in order to preserve liquidity due to low occupancy rates and the 16% global drop in the average price per room in the last year.The financial crisis has caused corporate travel to decline and pleasure travel even more, so chains such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., will allow their establishments to lower the level of service and their stars until they recover, according to spokesman K.C. Kavanagh.
Also, Hilton Hotels Corp. has reduced the category of some hotels, because as Stephen Bollenbach, executive of the chain, point out, maintaining the stars requires a huge capital investment and the category is not based on obtaining good returns on your investment.
The decreases in the hotel industry mean the loss of some services and added values such as flowers in the room, gift diaries or 24 hours of room service.
Source: Larepublica.com.co
