Qatar hotels are competing in a damaging ‘race to the bottom’ as increasing numbers of hotels compete for existing corporate business by lowering rates.
This was the conclusion of a panel discussion at Hotelier Middle East’s Qatar GM Debate 2013 on the current state of Qatar’s hospitality market. Hotel GMs also bemoaned a lack of market segmentation that was allowing corporate customers to get luxury and midscale hotels to compete for the same business.
Shangri-La and Traders Hotel Doha general manager Coen Masselin said: “I’m very concerned like everyone else that corporate rates are being driven down. We have to understand that whenever we make concessions on corporate rates it has a long term impact. Dropping corporate rates now is not going to attract anymore corporate business to the city, only lower revenue.”
| Advertisement |
This view was mirrored by Four Seasons Doha regional vice president and general manager Simon Casson who described how clever corporate customers were getting hotels to bid against each other for business to an extent that is quickly becoming “unsustainable for a small market such as Doha.”
“We need to get smarter on rates. At the moment there is a free market that is causing rates to fall and we need to come up with a more collective rate strategy for the market,” he concluded.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
Apr 16, 2013 , Qatar
I agree with Mark. I give credit to Qatar to host such important dicsussion platforms, but it is important to invite speakers who makes sense and who can contribute meaningfull message to the debate. Mr Masselink seems to be out of touch with the Doha market and his comments will only fuel negati...
Apr 15, 2013 , Canada
How can The GM of Shangrila, Masselink even claim this theory when his hotel has been delayed for 4 years and they have no presence in the Doha market. It is damaging to Qatari Hotel industry to invite such a n un-experienced and novice speaker to such an important platform. Where as the message ...