Money woes close small hotels

Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer

THE NEGRIL Chamber of Commerce has said that contrary to recent speculations, it has received no reports of small hotels in Negril closing down their operations because of financial problems.

Negril Inn, on the seven mile beach, Rock Cliff, on the west-end and the Emerald hotel have all been facing serious financial difficulties, some since the days of Finsac.

A small property next door to the Jungle nightclub is up for sale, Aqua Moon is listed with Coldwell Banker and up to recently owners of Our Pastime Villas were eagerly searching for purchasers.

"Because of business pressures in recent times, several hotels have had to lock shop," said a source in the resort town. The highly-placed source said that recently, the Bank of Nova Scotia had a property up for sale.

"I have no information on it. I do know that a number of hotels closed because of the bad summer and fall periods, but I have not been advised that others are closing their doors because of bad business, but I have heard that there are a few persons who are looking to divest themselves," President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Wayne Cummings, told Hospitality Jamaica.

However, Mr Cummings says he is predicting a brilliant winter season for the resort town, which has already started to trigger the reopening of most of the hotels which were closed during the fall season following several
hurricanes.

"For the ones with which I am familiar, I am being told that they no longer doing well, that the owners are looking at a more upscale business model ... they probably have not been able to meet the standards that are required for the new resort dispensation, maybe they have decided to take advantage of their real estate," he added.

He was, however, unable to say which hotels were up for sale as he could not pre-empt the owners, who had not yet publicly disclosed their intention to sell.

"There are some (small hotels) up for sale, but they are being sold for various reasons, and if there are others, it is up to the proprietors to make it public."