Bahrain hotels slash summer room rates

Luxury hotels in Bahrain are at the forefront of an initiative to boost local tourism by slashing their room rates during summer.

The five-star hotels’ executive committee launched the summer promotion—which has seen rates at Bahrain’s five-star hotels drop to BD45 (US $ 119) — in July and it will continue throughout August.

Chairman of the five star hotels’ executive committee and general manager of the Diplomat Radisson Blu hotel Bahrain, A. Rahman Morshed, said: “We co-ordinate the promotion with other five-star hotels to bring in more tourism.”

However, the promotion has not seen the initial success that the hotels hoped for.

“The occupancy [for the Diplomat] for July is around 45%, compared to 57% for the same period last year. So have we reached a state where we are happy? No. But the offer means we can reach a state where we have the minimum, and we try to make do,” said Morshed.

However, if it is a success, other regional hotels may follow suit.

W Doha area director of sales and marketing Wael Rashed said: “We do not have a rates cartel like in Bahrain so we have more freedom to choose our rates. But if it would drive in tourism then of course we would be interested in an initiative like this one”.