COIMBATORE: Hoteliers in the tourist town of Ooty have doubled the room rents expecting a spurt in the tourist inflow though all the Ooty summer season programmes have been postponed to the last week of May due to the election code of conduct and to facilitate the ministers to take part. The new tariff will be in vogue till the end of this summer.
No tourist can stay at any hotel for less than Rs 1,000 per night. For example, one popular hotel that comes under the State Tourism Ministry has enhanced the rent of ordinary room from Rs 500 to Rs 900 plus 12.5 per cent luxury tax, with effect from the first week of April. It charges Rs 1,000 plus tax for a deluxe room while Rs 1,200 plus tax is collected for a cottage.
Besides, another hotel run by the State Cooperative Department, has hiked the rent by close to 100 per cent.
The normal room rent, which was Rs 400 before the onset of summer, has been increased to Rs 750 exclusive of tax. Its deluxe room tariff has been enhanced from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 with Rs 225 tax.
While expressing their happiness, both the managers of these hotels said that occupancy rate would be 100 per cent during weekends and 90 per cent during week days. Jumping on the bandwagon, the private hotels have also upped the season rent on par with their government counterparts.
N Chandra Sekhar, secretary, Nilgiris Hotel and Restaurant Association (NHRA), said “With Plus Two and SSLC examinations being over, the visitors will start pouring in from Good Friday. As the temperature is soaring in the plains, parents and children will throng the cool town in large numbers. In addition, election campaigners will flock to this town.”
But this year tourists planning to travel in Nilgiris Mountain Train (NMT) are slightly dismayed as the Southern Railways has delayed the operation of summer special train.
Every year, the railways starts operating summer special trains either by last week of March or first week of April as the regular NMT is overcrowded.