Apartment blocks to become hotels

Apartment blocks to become hotels

JAKARTA (JP): Four money-losing apartment complexes in Jakarta are to be converted into hotels in a bid to make them more profitable, according to an official of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications.

Acep Hidayat, the ministry's director of tourism and accommodation development, told Antara over the weekend that the conversion of the four apartment buildings into hotels would be carried out in accordance with Ministerial Decree No.94/1987 concerning hotel classification.

One of the apartment complexes to be converted is Le Crystal in South Jakarta, Acep said.

"This conversion will affect the hotel industry, which is already suffering from an oversupply of hotel rooms. Moreover, a number of new hotel projects are currently still being built," he said.

Data at Acep's office show that there are 69 hotels in Jakarta with a total of 12,428 rooms. Occupancy rates average between 60 and 70 percent.

In connection with the conversion plan, Acep urged executives in the banking industry to thoroughly study credit allocations for the development of new apartments, saying that a failure to do so would be detrimental to many parties, including the hotel industry, the property sector and the banks themselves. (hhr)