Hotel competition in Anyer to get fiercer

ANYER, West Java (JP): The hotel industry around the Sunda Strait will get fiercer in the near future as several star-rated resorts and hotels are now under construction, an executive says.

"At least two resort projects currently being developed in the Anyer-Carita beach area will start operating within the next few years and create fiercer competition," the general manager of Carita Beach Resort, Rudolf G. Schouten, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He said some of the hotels in this potential international tourist area are managed by domestic and international hotel management chains which are too reluctant to create price wars.

More international hotel chains have actually entered the hotel industry in Indonesia by signing deals with domestic investors to operate new star-rated hotels throughout the country, which will then sharpen competition in the industry.

Along the Anyer-Carita beach, the American Choice Hotel International has operated Mambruk Quality Resort, a four-star hotel resort, while the Jakarta-based PT Pudjiadi Prestige Ltd. is constructing Marbella Residencia, a condominium and star-rated hotel complex.

Other planned resorts in the area, which currently has around 20 hotels, include Rakata Beach Resort and the Krakatau Beach Hotel, which will be reconstructed.

Schouten said that his hotel, located on a 10-hectare plot, operates 102 rooms and 48 executive "lanais" which are in the shape of elevated houses with thatched roofs of old Banten architecture. Nearby Banten is at the western tip of Java and is one of the country's areas well-known for historical traditions and culture.

He said that since its opening last year, the hotel's occupancy rates have reached 45 percent, "which is expected to increase to 65 percent within the next three years."

A resort hotel usually concentrates on weekend or long-stay guests and convention, with an occupancy rate lower than hotels in big cities.

According to Schouten, out of his hotel's guests, 80 percent come from Jakarta, 15 percent from overseas countries, mainly the Netherlands, Germany and Australia, and five percent from Bandung, West Java.

The hotel, constructed with an investment of Rp 40 billion (US$18.52 million) is owned by the Foundation of Pension Fund of the state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia. (als/icn)