Bandung, Yogya hotels running out of rooms

BANDUNG/YOGYAKARTA (The Jakarta Post): The lead up to the Idul Fitri holiday has already seen Jakartans on their bikes, heading home -- and this year the holiday season has also seen many hotels in West Java's capital Bandung and Yogyakarta completely booked out.

In Bandung, most hotels have been booked by guests coming from Jakarta and several hotels in Yogyakarta have started to turn people away.

Sheraton Hotel & Towers' communication director Eddy SS said the hotel's 153 rooms were almost 100 percent booked with Jakartans from Oct. 13 to 15.

He contributed the hotel's high occupancy to its lebaran package promotion, which runs from Oct. 12 to 16.

"The package is on offer at Rp 2.7 million for two nights stay including breakfast and lunch or special dinner," he said.

At Arion Swiss-Bel hotel in the heart of Bandung, rooms were fully booked from Oct. 12 to 15 but outside those dates, 20 percent were still available, hotel general manager Andhy Irawan said.

The increased demand for rooms came as a surprise for Panghegar hotel's corporate officer Restina Setiawan, she said.

The hotel's 189 rooms were fully booked from October 13 to 14 and the four-star hotel had no special promotion.(Yuli Tri Suwarni and Slamet Susanto)