There has been lots of skepticism relating to the reasons why hotels are expensive in Nigeria.Lots of foreigners come into the country and make the same complaints, Nigerians travel out of the country and come back to give the same complaints. The question is why?
According to Vanguard Newspaper, it reported that An hotel consultant, Gbnenga Oladele in a chat said hotels rely on diesel powered generators which costs fortunes, coupled with the fact that there is a major issue with electricity supply in Nigeria.
According to reports, he said, " if i have one guest in my hotel, I need to supply electricity. Some hotels prepared their budget for this year on N135 per litre for diesel, but today diesel is being sold in the range of N245. The question is where do you put the extra cost? Is it on rooms or food?
He also said, the issue of multiple taxes ia also another problem, which needs to be resolved before the cost of hotel in the country can be addressed.
"The government that is supposed to be helping hotel business is killing the sector with excess taxes. In Lagos, you have the consumption tax after the VAT. How do you expect business to survive when one has to pay different taxes?
He also added, "but with the way things are going, businesses are finding it tough to cope, while unemployment is increasing."
From my perspective, hotel business in Nigeria is lucrative but within the last couple of months to a year now, it's getting tougher, hotels are being shut down because they can't afford to pay this so called TAX, some can't meet up to the competition, others can't afford to pay staff. Everything boils down to ridiculous tax demand, high cost of energy, poor customer service from staff; simply because hotels can't hire personnel with good work experience, they would rather go for the poorly educated ones that will accept the poor salary they are offering, lack of good infrastructures in the country, high NEPA bill.....
There has to be a solution for us to enjoy the hotel business and for the job to get into the hands of those truly qualified to handle it.
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