T

he country'€™s hotel industry is preparing for the peak season as several people plan to stay in hotels with family and friends to celebrate the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.

A number of hotels in major cities across Java and Bali have reported that many rooms have been booked for Dec. 25 to Jan. 1, 2014.

Five-star Hotel Borobudur Jakarta communications director Fransiska Kansil said that it had received bookings for the year-end holidays since the end of November.

'€œWe have been receiving bookings particularly from guests who will bring their family here to
celebrate the holidays. Based on our experience from past years, all of our rooms will be fully booked from around Dec. 20 through early January,'€ Fransiska said, adding that Borobudur has 695 guest rooms and suites.

Besides a buffet gala dinner, music and poolside activities, she said that the availability of children activities like painting, tattooing and drawing competitions had successfully lured more guests to stay in the hotel during the holiday season.

'€œLoyal customers keep coming back just to celebrate the holidays because their children love the activities that we provide for them,'€ she said.

She added that the year-end holiday season was the hotel'€™s second-largest annual revenue contributor after Idul Fitri.

Similarly, local chain Tauzia Hotel Management spokeswoman Yani Sinulingga said that its four-star hotels under the Harris brand, which are located in Sumatra, Java and Bali, had seen strong demand for the holiday season.

According to the firm'€™s data, guest rooms at Harris Hotel Bukit Jimbaran and Harris Tuban, both in Bali, have been fully booked for Dec. 27 to Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, respectively.

Meanwhile, its property in East Java, Harris Hotel Malang, has seen 100 out of 229 rooms booked for the end of December to early January.

'€œWe are optimistic that all of our rooms will be booked in the last day of December because some people usually make the decision to celebrate the New Year just a few days before Dec. 31,'€ Yani said.

The management operates 13 Harris Hotels with a total 2,506 rooms in Batam (Riau Islands), Jakarta, Bogor (West Java), Bandung (West Java), Malang and Bali.

Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) chairwoman Wiryanti Sukamdani said that
hotel occupancy rates, especially those that were located near popular tourist attractions, would stand between 90 to 100 percent on New Year'€™s Eve.

The hotel industry is expected to see normal growth, with rates between 50 to 70 percent, a week after the celebration.