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Bed tax affects contracting at ATE
By Rosa Ocampo MELBOURNE- Rate contracting for Sydney hotels was in limbo during the recent Australian Tourism Exchange due to the spectre of the 10 per cent bed tax (TravelAsia, May 23), which has been approved for implementation. Hotels including the Ritz-Carlton Double Bay Sydney did not quote rates during the event. Ritz-Calrton said it would have to review rates for the new contracting year which starts April next year. "We had anticipated a rate increase for 1998, but we need to pass the 10 per cent bed tax on to clients. That would make us uncompetitive in our city and some operators would move from using five star to four star hotels," complained Susan Dunstan, director of sales and marketing. An Asian hotel chain which has four Sydney properties was quoting rates which did not include the 10 per cent tax. "All wholesalers already have the published price for end-March 1998 so they cannot change it," according to the chain's general manager sales. It is estimated that 60 per cent of the hotels have not signed the
agreement for room allocation with the Sydney Olympics. This means the Olympics organisers
are still 16,000 rooms short of the target to secure the A$400 million Olympic Games
sponsorship. |
