As a strategy to survive the economic hardship caused by present recession in the country some hotels have begun to negotiate downwards the cost of services they render to their customers.
Investigations have revealed that the hotels which are mainly those of middle class are now willing to reduce the cost of accommodation, and other services.
Some of the hotel managements who suffer very low patronage as a result of hard times facing their customers now accept N5,000 per room per day as against former charges of between N10,000 to N15,000. A manager of a middle class hotel in D/Line area of Port Harcourt, Mr Chika Onwuzor, said the patronage is very low such that at times, to get up to seven customers to lodge for a day is very difficult. And some of the customers request for reduction in the cost of lodging.
“It is better to accept them at reduced charges than lose them to other hotels  and the only way is that such a strategy must be the design of the hotel management”.
Also confirming the development, an event manager, Mrs Judith Austin, said at times some of her clients request that her company negotiates for accommodation for their guests coming from outside Port Harcourt.
She said: “Recently I observed that when I asked for accommodation for say about three to five guests for between 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the original price, the hotel managements were very ready to accept.
“This is quite unlike before, when the going was good and the competition was striving and the impression then was like if your price is low, your class is also low. The big boys and girls always preferred upgrade both in price and quality of services”.

Chris Oluoh