In an interview with the Listín Diario, entrepreneur Gabriel Barceló Oliver, speaking on behalf of the Barceló hotel group, stressed that one of the main reasons why occupancy and profitability is down among Dominicans hotels is that there has been a consistent increase in new hotel room. The Dominican hotel room inventory has increased about 10% a year and is now at about 45,000 rooms. He called for investors and the government to come to their senses and work from a plan that would envision a reasonable amount of rooms that can enter the market, keeping in line with the demand. He said that supply has far outpaced demand in the past two years. He said that it is a lose-lose situation, because hotels have to compete among themselves for the same travelers, which results in lower room rates, less profitability, less taxes paid to the government. He said that employment also suffers as hotels cut jobs as their profitability declines. He also alerted that the increase in hotel rooms places new demands on infrastructure, such as airport services, highways, aqueducts, and garbage collection, among others. The Barceló group operates some 2,500 hotels rooms located in the Barceló Bávaro hotels in the East Coast as well as the Capella Beach Resort in Juan Dolio.
