GEORGE TOWN: Hotels here are hitting an occupancy booking rate of 80% for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.

       However, the lack of manpower is putting the brakes on a “full celebration” by hoteliers as some of them are only opening up 70% of their rooms.

       “We expect good business during the holidays, but many of our members cannot fully open up as they don’t have the manpower to meet the demand and have to settle for opening up 70% to 75% of their rooms,” said Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Penang chapter chairman Tony Goh.

       “Most of our members are looking at an occupancy rate of 80% and that could go higher, but the individual hotels will have to see how they are going to cope with the numbers.

       “Bigger hotels have a leeway as they could close a few food and beverage outlets redeploy staff members to the housekeeping department, which is the hardest hit, as a temporary solution to the shortage of workers,” he added.

       He said most of the workers were laid off over the last two years when hotels were badly hit due to the movement control order caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

       “It all depends on how creative the individual hotels are when it comes to managing the holiday crowd without compromising their service and business performance,” Goh added.

       Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry Penang director Jonathan Freddy Bagang said the occupancy rate could hit 90% as there was a significant increase in occupancy rates of city and resort hotels.

       “Resort hotels are seeing more than 90% occupancy rate for the Hari Raya holidays as many are taking a longer holiday break after more than two years,” he noted.

       In Kedah, Langkawi is bracing to receive more than 70,000 guests during the one-week holiday season, including around 10,000 visitors on direct flights from Singapore.

       Langkawi Development Authority chief executive officer Nasaruddin Abdul Muttalib said AirAsia and Scoot Air each had four direct flights a week to Langkawi and many from the island were expected to be at the beach hotels during the holiday.

       However, MAH Kedah/Perlis chapter chairman Eugene Dass said most of the locals were concentrated around Kuah town.

       “With the relaxation of standard operating procedures and opening up of the country’s borders, hotels are not giving promotional rates anymore and many find the old rates a little pricey for their budget.

       “That is why hotels on the mainland of Kedah are having an 80% occupancy rate equivalent to Langkawi, although beach hotels in Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah are expected to do brisk business of higher than 80% during the holidays,” he added.

       Dass said manpower shortage was not a big issue in Kedah as most hotels were managing the higher occupancy rate well and there had been no complaints from members.