Novotel Yogya opens

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Four-star Novotel Hotel Yogyakarta held its soft opening yesterday. It is the Prima Suryagraha Perkasa Group's first property outside of Jakarta.

The Rp 50 billion (US$13.8 million) hotel has 201 rooms, including a special room for the disabled, and a toddlers' play center.

The hotel's general manager, Jerome Stubert, said the hotel was under the management of the Accor group, a French hotel chain which operates more than 3,600 hotels worldwide.

Stubert said he was confident the hotel could conquer the relatively stagnant market of Yogyakarta's hotels.

The occupancy rates of most hotels in Yogyakarta is only about 50 percent with an average length of stay of 1.3 days, he said.

"In this case, what we have to do is learn how to make a longer length of stay. If we can make it just one day longer, the occupancy rate will automatically become 85 percent," he added. (swa)