Gas turned off for some Sousse hotels

It has been reported today by the excellent businessnews.com.tn website that allegedly as many as 8 hotels in the Sousse area (4 and 5 star) have had their gas cut off by the STEG national gas company.

At the moment I cannot find the names of the hotels but no doubt this will be released soon, naturally this is not a good situation as the said hotels will have a lot of unhappy guests.

The next question will be if the gas is off what about the electricity or the food? Tour operators will have to ask serious questions about their hotel partners economic viability going forward.

The problems for hotels are numerous in Tunisia often built with advantages loans and to persons not in the hotel industry. The hotels are often built with too many rooms and said rooms end up being sold for next to nothing to tour companies which then results in the hotel having less money to renovate/train > standards go lower > less money > etc.

It is also important to remember that some of the hotels in Tunisia are/where owned by members of the departing regime (even Colonel Gadaffi had a couple) so bills never got paid, who was going to be brave enough to go chase the payment? This now leaves Tunisian hotels in a downward spiral over capacity, too expensive to buy for foreign investors, massive outstanding loans….and unpaid bills that are now getting enforced.

Rather than giving free money away it may be better for the government to have a process of bankruptcy and turnaround to protect the jobs of the thousands who work in Tunisia’s hotels.

Are you in one of the hotels effected on holiday? do you work in one of the hotels? Please leave you comments below to have your say!

References:

http://www.businessnews.com.tn/Tunisie—La-STEG-coupe-le-gaz-%C3%A0-huit-h%C3%B4tels-%C3%A0-Sousse,520,26828,3