Luxury hotel earnings reveal mixed trends in FY21

The listed luxurious hotels reported mixed earnings in fiscal 2020-21 hit hardest by the pandemic.

The hotel business was not good in Dhaka but relatively better in the tourist spot-oriented hotel during the fiscal year, according to an analysis of data filed by the companies with the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The Westin Dhaka owned by Unique Hotel and Resorts located in Dhaka passed the bad year but Peninsula and Sea Pearl Resort located in Cox's Bazar witnessed good business.

Despite the bad year, the Unique Hotel & Resorts declared a 10 per cent cash dividend for its shareholders.

The luxury hotels in Dhaka or big cities mainly depend on foreign guests who stooped travelling in the pandemic year, leaving a negative impact on their sales, according to the people familiar with the situation.

“The 90 per cent occupancy rate was covered by the foreign guests in hotels located in Dhaka. But during the pandemic, the occupancy rate went down below 5 per cent,” Bangladesh Services Limited (BSL) Company Secretary Md Nazmus Sadat Salim told The Business Post.

As the pandemic started to fizzle out, the situation is now changing, he said.

Sheraton Hotel operated by the BSL incurred losses in the FY21, according to him. But the figure was not disclosed.

The hotels in the tourist spots have been witnessing booming sales soon after the coronavirus restrictions were lifted in the beginning of the last financial year, said the hoteliers.

“After the pandemic, the situation improved a lot,” Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa Limited Company Secretary Md Azaharul Mamun told the Business Post.

The local tourists started to flock to the tourists' spots such as Cox's Bazar, Sylhet, Khulna and Kuakata, he said.

In the third quarter of the last fiscal year when the pandemic broke out, the hotels faced a tough time.

“The arrival of foreign tourists remained insignificant in Chattogram, the port city during the pandemic,” Peninsula Chittagong Limited Company Secretary Mohammed Nurul Azim told The Business Post.

The hotel business is yet to get back its pre-pandemic level, he said adding that the business continued in the first nine months of the last financial year before coming to a standstill.