CBCP warns hotels vs raising rates during papal visit

MANILA, Philippines–The committee in charge of Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines in January is set to meet with the Department of Tourism (DOT) to discuss reports some hotels were taking advantage of the papal visit to hike their room rates.

“Reports said some hotels along Roxas Boulevard had made the forthcoming papal visit an excuse to raise their accommodation rates,” Fr. Jimmy Marquez, executive secretary of the Papal Visit on Accommodations of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said in an article posted on the CBCP website.

But Kenneth Montegrande, spokesman for the Ermita Malate Business Owners Association (Emboa), a group aiming to improve the image of the two prime tourist areas of Manila, refuted the reports.

Montegrande said that in fact the hotels around the Luneta, where an open papal Mass is expected to be celebrated, were fully booked long before Pope Francis’s visit from Jan. 15 to 19.

“Hotels from Ermita to Quirino Avenue are already fully booked, so it’s not true,” Montegrande said in a phone interview.

He said that during Emboa’s last meeting, the owners of hotels even discussed giving promotional discounts to those wishing to attend the papal Mass.

Montegrande, however, said the organization—composed of 160 hotels, restaurants and shops in Ermita and Malate—could not speak for establishments that did not belong to the group.

“Among our members, which include the Manila Hotel and Bayview Hotel, we encourage them not to increase their rates. But for the others, we cannot tell them not to do so,” he said.

In line with this, Father Marquez appealed to the faithful to extend their hospitality to friends and relatives from outside Metro Manila who may want to join the papal activities, in order to spare them the need to book hotel rooms.

Meanwhile, the government is studying the possibility of declaring the duration of the papal visit a holiday, according to a member of the Papal Visit Committee.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., a former envoy to Israel and a member of the committee, said this was likely given that the last papal visit—that of Pope St. John Paul II in 1995—had also been declared a holiday.

“We are seriously considering [the possibility] and in due time we will announce if there is going to be holidays on those days,” Paynor was quoted as saying over Radio Veritas.

“When John Paul II came here a holiday period had also been declared … it is under very serious and close study,” he said.

The holiday declaration aims to avoid the buildup of heavy traffic and enable Catholics who may want to take part in the papal activities to do so.

Earlier, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada announced a five-day, nonworking holiday in Manila for Pope Francis’s visit on Jan. 15 to 19.

In an executive order, Estrada declared the suspension of classes and a holiday for all the city government offices during the papal visit.