PT Golden Truly will open its first hotel
PT Golden Truly will open its first hotel
JAKARTA (JP): PT Golden Truly, a business group controlled by
businessman Sudwikatmono, will open its first hotel, Golden
Hotel, here on Saturday.
Company president, H.E. Dachlan, said the four-star hotel was
owned and managed by the group's subsidiary PT Batara Tabaraka.
"The 365-room hotel, constructed with an investment of US$30
million, will be operated with assistance from Sunroute Hotels
International of Japan," he said.
Situated on the junction of Jl. Angkasa and Jl. Gunung Sari,
Central Jakarta, the hotel is near the Kemayoran fairground.
Golden Hotel, which will be able to cater banquets for up to
1,500 people, will compete with hotels such as the Sheraton
Media, Ibis Kemayoran, Mercure Jayakarta, Alpin and other smaller
hotels.
As of January 1997, Jakarta has 80 star-rated hotels
comprising of 10 five-star (4,964 rooms), 12 four-star (4,102),
20 three-star (2,977), 18 two-star (1,681) and 20 one-star
(1,383).
The hotel was originally planned as a three-star hotel.
"We estimate there will be many guests during the annual
Jakarta Fair to be held from June 14-July 13 this year," Dachlan
said, adding that the hotel would also offer a long-stay program
with a special rate of $1,200 per month.
He said his company estimated to break even within the next
eight years.
Nonetheless, Batara Tabaraka still had to clear three aging
houses located in front of the Golden hotel, if the company
wanted the hotel to look better.
An owner of one of the three houses told The Jakarta Post that
he refused to sell his property because the price offered by the
hotel owner was very low.
"We are urged to sell our properties to the other company
though we have told them that we are not selling our houses. But
we also want a musyawarah mufakat (consensus)," he said.
Another source at the location said two outgoing owners had
been paid Rp 2 billion and Rp 2.5 billion respectively for a plot
of the same size of 194 square-meters.
"The value of the land in Jakarta is very dynamic, I can't say
the nominal rate," Dachlan said.
He was optimistic that the hotel would operate well and break
even by 2005.
"The occupancy rate must reach 80 percent or 85 percent within
the eight-year period. That's why we cooperate with Sunroute, a
leading Japanese firm which runs hundreds of hotels."
There are currently three Japanese-based hotel chains
operating in Indonesia. Nikko, a Japan Airlines subsidiary,
manages the four-star President Hotel in Jakarta and the newly-
open Nikko Bali in Nusa Dua Selatan. The Dai-Ichi and Imperial
Japanese hotel chains run hotels in Senen, Central Jakarta, and
Legian, Bali, respectively.
Japan is a major tourism market. Of the 5.03 million foreign
tourists who arrived in Indonesia in 1996, 638,287 were Japanese.
Japan ranked second after 1.19 million Singaporean tourist
arrivals. (icn)