Exclusive hotels are going out of business?

BlahBlah

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I don't really know it and it's even harder to get reliable figures about this but what I heard in the last couple of days is not really positive

Alvear hotel is running on 25% ocupancy rate
Mariott fired 50 people
Faena stopped there daily show/concert

Any more things to add or maybe personal experiences?
 
BlahBlah said:
I don't really know it and it's even harder to get reliable figures about this but what I heard in the last couple of days is not really positive

Alvear hotel is running on 25% ocupancy rate
Mariott fired 50 people
Faena stopped there daily show/concert

Any more things to add or maybe personal experiences?


Most of the bars, cafes, and restaurants that I walk by seem to be pretty empty. I think that people are staying home and saving their money. Tourism seems to be way down also. I rarely see or hear the voice of tourists these days. I have also heard that many cafes/restaurants have closed in recent months.
 
Foreigners seemed to have moved a lot more to Palermo then Recoleta. If you go out in Palermo there are still plenty of foreigners. But I agree there are way less foreigners then there were 6 months or a year ago.

The bars in the reconquista area which is higly dependant on the hotels nearby also seem pretty emty, only Blue is doing ok, but that looks full pretty easy

Any inside info on the exclusive hotels or any hotel/hostel?
 
Recoleta Carolina said:
Most of the bars, cafes, and restaurants that I walk by seem to be pretty empty. I think that people are staying home and saving their money. Tourism seems to be way down also. I rarely see or hear the voice of tourists these days. I have also heard that many cafes/restaurants have closed in recent months.

What time of day or night were you walking when you made the observation that the cafes and restaurants were "pretty" empty? If you are really walking the streets of Recoleta can't you determine for yourself whether or not "many" cafes/restaurants have actually closed (as opposed to relating what you have heard)?

Not only have I observed that few cafes and restaurants in Recoleta, Palermo, and Belgrano have closed, but almost all of those who recently closed are presently being remodeled and will reopen soon, though there is certainly no guarantee of success.
 
I see definitly way more locales who are for aquilar, but that are mainly the smaller locales for stores or locutorios

The bars and cafe's are definitly less packed now, but that does not say a lot

I was in Friday's last friday and that was like old times with 20-30 minutes waiting time and the place is not cheap
 
An american friend who owns a hostel here seems to think that alot have gone out of business in the last year. And his place is down on last year, instead of the usual 20 to 30 people a day, there is sometimes only 5, and never as many as 20.
I did notice in barrio norte that alot of cafes have closed, or looked closed, with no renovation work going on.
Also florida and la valle are not as busy as they were a year ago, and sometimes when i am down there i dont see any tourist - not that i walk the whole la valle / florida streets, just go to cinema and for ice cream.
 
I have the same impression about Calle Florida and I almost go on a daily basis to Galarias Pacifico. Once the Gripe A fear eases the Brazilians should return in the weekends to do some shopping and see the city. The Reais is about 2 peso now and shopping is about 50% cheaper in BA then in Brasil. They do however mainly buy package deals so the hotels should get some ocupation with that but at low rates

I assume that if you have your costs based on 30 or even 20 people and only on average 5 show up you will end up on losing your business.

Did he do anything with his rates?

P.S. You can however change your hotel to a love hotel, they are still doing good business :)
 
I dont think he dropped his rates. He did tell me it is hard to know what is really going on as during a normal year it can be up and down quite a bit. An example is xmas, where he usually is full from the week before xmas, up until the week after new years, then it can be dead, 1/2 full or full, just depends on the year. Same with this time of year, can be dead as now, or busy with people passing through on way to warmer places like peru or brazil.. But he thinks the trend is a lot less tourists, and is the worst he has seen since before the 2000 crisis. He thinks swine flu fears, the financial crisis and the cost (inflation) of argentina now is all having an effect.
I myself find argentina expensive compared to NZ/AUS.. when i first arrived in 2007 is was cheaper. All this has happened since mid 2008, when NZ$ and AU$ dropped by 30 to 40% against the US$, which the peso didnt, and has only really started to drop in last six months, because the gov controls the value of the peso. Arg is a commodity exporting country like Aus, NZ, Brazil, South Africa and Canada, which all had big currency drops against the US$ due to commodity prices dropping. The peso didnt drop, so it became more expensive to travel here. The only consolation for me is that my flight from NZ in march 2008 was about (NZ$2300) US$ 1900 at the time, this year it was US$650 (NZ$1200), due to a lot less passengers and the drop in the NZ$ - it dropped from US$0.82 to US$0.50 in 6 months - has since recovered to around US$0.65. The peso went from around 3 to 3.20 pesos to the US$ in that same period.
The plane was also 1/2 full in march 2009, where last year it was full. This route from NZ is very popular with backpackers as they travel through Asia, then around Aus and NZ, then head to South America on their world tour.
 
davonz said:
I dont think he dropped his rates.

This is what I so far have not been able to understand: No business, no sales, no occupancy and no one drops the price.

Also, I don't understand what is driving the inflation? Can some on explain this to me? If you bought something to sell a year ago, why are you bring the price UP today? If you haven't sold it in a year, I would think you would bring down the price?
 
This is what I so far have not been able to understand: No business, no sales, no occupancy and no one drops the price.

It's because it takes about a year for an Argentine to come to terms with reality(8 months of dropping tourism, with june and July up who will be hit with Swine flu)

The other reason is that most Argentines don't have the appartments as there primary business, it's only to be secure against inflation and economic crisis, for not having cash at home and money laundering. They are happy if they don't get a negative result(cost - income) It's also better to rent out your appartment for 4 months at a premium then 8 months at a discount (or selling 2 beers for 25 peso, instead of 5 for 5, that way you will increase your rentability and you know an Argentine wont spend more then that 25-35 peso so make the beer expensive)

This will change however because cost are still raising fast and the demand is way down. There will be many people who have to lower there rates or facing economic hardship.

Also, I don't understand what is driving the inflation? Can some on explain this to me? If you bought something to sell a year ago, why are you bring the price UP today? If you haven't sold it in a year, I would think you would bring down the price?

No competition and higher costs. With the higher utility rates inflation will come down a bit more, especially for luxury products because there will be less income to spend
 
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