Long-established hotels are falling like dominoes, victims of hard times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of the reason is their failure to adjust to new business norms during the health crisis that has seen occupancy rates plummet.
In this environment, they found it difficult to raise funds to refurbish aging facilities.
HELP AVAILABLE
Alarmed by the development, hotel operators are being urged to seek assistance from third parties to ensure that historically significant properties survive in some form.
Asahi Sakurai, head of the management department of the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward summed up the situation facing many operators when he said, “We haven t generated big profits for a long time and our financial situation has worsened to the extent we can no longer wait for the market to pick up.”