About 500 rooms at residential hotels, guest houses and cottages in Cox’s Bazar have been surprisingly booked in advance due to three consecutive holidays.
Large number of tourists already came and no more accommodation facilities are available in Cox’s Bazar town. Therefore, rent for a normal room reached to at least Tk 3,500 per day. Even some hotels are asking for Tk7-8 thousand per room.
This abnormal situation has been observed in the last few days while visiting a number of hotels.
Tourism traders of Kalatoli said, it is normal that a large number of tourists come to Cox’s Bazar on various holidays including winter and government holidays every year.
This year they expected to have business worth few hundred crore’s in Cox’s Bazar hotels sector. However, they don’t bother about extra rents. They said, sometime a tour may cost extra, it’s not a matter to be worried.
It is found that no hotel has any rental chart. No single room is left for 21 and 22 February at standard hotels like Diamond, Galici, Beach Way, Beach Resort, White Orchids. Some people complained that there is hardly any room available for February 21 and 22. The hotel owners are asking Tk7,000 for a room which are still available. They further said most of the hotel rooms already went to broker’s hand.
Some brokers booked rooms in advance. Brokers follow this strategy to rent rooms to tourists at a higher price. As a result, the hotel authorities can not give booking for a new room. A hotel official said, “Our hotels are rented at a fixed price.
No hotels of the Cox’s Bazar carries price list of hotel rentals. Mobile court of the district administration are acting neutral position. They don’t how we are surviving.
Cox’s Bazar’s Deputy Commissioner and Beach Management President Md Kamal Hossain said, “To protect the tourists from harassment during these holidays, a number of mobile courts under the supervision of executive magistrate are working. “Instructions have been given to hang rental price list at every hotels to stop tourists harassment. If the traders do not follow this, we would take action,” he pointed out.
He also said that the mobile court will take measures if the extra money and adulterated food is served in the residential hotel and restaurant. The market of essential commodities has also been affected before the arrival of tourists . After the arrival of a large number of tourists the prices of general commodities has also been increased.
