BOMBAY: Up to 40% of reservations in five star hotels in the city have been cancelled following the multiple bomb blasts in the Mega polis on March 12, said officials at these establishments.
At the Oberoi Towers, many of those, who were supposed to check in on Friday, cancelled their reservations. “Around 40% of reservations were cancelled,” informs general manager Himmat Sandhu. But he added that a genuine indication of the disaster’s impact on foreign tourists would emerge only on Monday.
Sandhu was candid enough to say that apart from the general sense of gloom which pervaded all commercial enterprises in the city, hotels had never really prepared for such an eventuality. “1 must say that our security was not geared to tackle this kind of problem,” he remarked.
Now, however, the hotel is wiser; they have decided to seek professional help for advice on how to backup security arrangements, and ensure that their hotel does not become a target of such bomb attacks.
At the Taj Intercontinental, around 35 reservations have been cancelled, mainly from visitors abroad. “Around 70% of our arrivals are from abroad. Some of them called to find out how the situation was and on being reassured, have decided to make the trip after all,” said Robert Nazarath, Senior Assistant at the Front Office. Similarly, around 30 reservations have been cancelled at the Sea Rock hotel, which experienced a blast on its 18th floor that fateful Friday. “A lot of people are apprehensive about coming to Bombay. Most of the cancellations in our case are from within India,” explained public relations officer Sadhna Baijal.
She said that a host of security measures had been taken and all the rooms on the hotel’s functioning six floors were occupied. “We have 400 rooms but because of the blast, we can operate only 170. We are not using any of the floors above the 15th story.”
Article extracted from this publication >> March 26, 1993
