Q & A with Juan Fernandez RodriguezGeneral Manager of the Arenas Doradas HotelHoteles C - Raytur

by Jose Carlos de Santiago

The Arenas Doradas is off to a terrific start this year with average occupancy hovering around a whopping 97 percent in the first quarter of 2006 alone.

This result and a comprehensive refurbishment plan the hotel has taken on –coupled with positive trends in most markets targeted by this lodging- make the hotel´s general manager conclude this is going to be just another good year, “even amid a raging price war the sector is going through and the threat of potential hurricanes.”

Q.- What Cuban group is your company partnered with?

A.- We´re working with Gran Caribe, which is the owner of the Arenas Doradas, the Playa Caleta and the Presidente hotels.

Q.- What´s been the average occupancy rate in the first quarter of the ongoing year?

A.- It´s been pretty good, in the neighborhood of 97 percent. The hotel has been virtually sold out all these months. This week, for instance, there was an incentive group of 400 Italians in the hotel.

Q.- What´s the main market you´re working on?

A.- Our top market in the wintertime travel season is the Canadian, though the German market goes steady all year round. We also deal with the Italian market, which is pretty important, together with the British and Spanish markets.

Q.- How´s the German market faring right now as stacked up against the others?

A.- It usually accounts for fifty percent of the entire market.

Q.- How´s been the hotel´s remodeling efforts going on?

A.- As far as the Arenas Doradas is concerned, we´ll wrap up the refurbishment of seven floors. We´re currently remodeling some seventy rooms alongside the common areas, the lobby, the furniture, the kitchen equipment. Everything´s going on at a pretty good pace.

Q.- What expectations in terms of occupancy are you forecasting for later this year?

A.- Expectations are good. We also need to see how the upcoming hurricane season will play out. We were pounded hard by hurricanes last year and I think there´s some kind of social fright, as if people were afraid of hurricanes. That´s really worrisome, in addition to the current situation in the markets in which prices seem to be kind of bogged down right now.

Q.- Is the price policy actually that bad?

A.- I see (the price policy) getting worse off with each passing month. There´s a price war going on right now and that hits everybody hard. It´s not good to anybody. There´s an urgent need to come up with a steadier price policy and some unity among hotel chains. This price war I´m talking about is by far the worst I´ve ever seen.

Q.- What tour operators are pulling more strings in this price war you´ve mentioned? The Italian, the Spanish or the German?

A.- Especially the Italian and Canadian companies, the latter due to the geographical proximity with Cuba and the tremendous tourist outflows they send to the island nation. Those two are among the ones exerting more pressure in prices.