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)