BARELY starting to rebound with the easing of quarantine levels, a number of hotels in tourism destinations affected by typhoon Odette’s fury have temporarily stopped accepting guests due to overcapacity, inadequate power supply and water, and structural damage.
The 400-room Radisson Blu Cebu was one of the first hotels to announce it was “currently unable to receive new bookings from today (December 18) until further notice as the hotel is currently booked to capacity.” Other hotels that have temporarily closed include Amorita Resort in Bohol, and El Nido resorts in Palawan.
Air Asia Philippines, for its part, said some 3,000 passengers have been stranded due to delays and flight cancellations following airport closures in Cebu, Tagbilaran and Puerto Princesa. Some 33,000 airline passengers of flag carriers Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific were also affected by the airport closures, including that of Siargao and Ozamiz. (See, “Domestic tourists stranded in Cebu, Siargao as Odette destroys airports,” in the BusinessMirror, December 19, 2021.)
In a news statement, the Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) said Odette “hit several parts of the Visayas and Mindanao where 30 percent of PHOA’s 308 hotel members are located.”
The group said it had yet to determine the full extent of the damage suffered by its member-hotels, but it is “spearheading efforts to ensure that its hotel-members as well as other stakeholders that suffered from the calamity recover at the earliest possible time.”
Local residents check into hotels
Peggy Angeles, executive vice president of the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp., which operates Radisson Blu Cebu, told the BusinessMirror, “Prior to the typhoon, Radblu had quarantined guests, and some business travelers and those having meetings. There were banquet and social events, too.” She added the hotel suffered some damage and some of their employees were personally affected by the typhoon. “Hotel is running high occupancies because of local residents.”
But she stressed the hotel will still honor the bookings earlier made by arriving guests who are expected to quarantine when the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) reopens to international flights. “Rooms have been allocated for them,” she said. Fortunately, Angeles said, SMHCC’s other properties in Iloilo and Bacolod have been spared.
In Panglao Island, Bohol, Amorita Resort has temporarily stopped accepting guests “since the fuel supply of the island is dwindling and water pressure is also quite low since utility providers’ facilities were damaged by the storm,” said resort general manager Leeds Trompeta.
He still did not have a final count on how many guests will be affected by the resort’s suspension of bookings, “but we have been asking guests to rebook towards mid-January 2022.”
Some flights resume
For his part, Joey Bernardino, Group Director of Sales and Marketing at Ten Knots Development Corp., which manages the Ayala Group’s El Nido resorts, said: “Our crisis management team prepared the resorts and arranged early departure for our guests so only our employees were on the islands for both Sicogon and El Nido. In Sicogon Island, Balai Kogon sustained minimal damage while Huni Sicogon was spared.”
He added, “In El Nido, despite the efforts to secure all areas, the resorts still sustained some damage due to strong winds and fallen trees. After a thorough assessment, most of the affected areas were repairable, however there were areas which need to be closed off and will be attended to. The resorts will need to close for a couple of days while we conduct maintenance work. This will affect some arrivals, but we are reopening for the next travel bubbles this December.”
He did not say how many guests will be affected by the temporary closure of the resorts on Pangalusian Island, Lagen Island, and Miniloc Island.
Meanwhile, Air Asia PH spokesman Steve Dailisan said, “So far we have resumed our commercial flights to Caticlan (Boracay) yesterday to service our guests who were stranded since the suspension of operations of the jetty port. Today (December 19) we resumed our Manila-Cebu-Manila flights. We have also mounted recovery flights accommodate all our stranded gut in Cebu. However, we cancelled our Puerto Princesa flight yesterday and today because of the notice of closure of the airport.”
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