Sonargaon Hotel renovation to be completed next month

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Syed Ishtiaque Reza
Panpacific Sonargaon Hotel is going to get a new look soon after years of struggle with the Orion Group that threw it into complete mess.
The country's premier five star hotel, owned by the government's Hotel International Limited (HIL), suffered loss of revenue and also reputation since the Accom Engineers, a concern of the Orion Group, got the multi-million taka renovation and refurbishment works in early 2006.
The snail's pace in work caused disruption in the normal operation of the hotel. Essential facilities, including the swimming pool and health club, remained closed since the beginning of the renovation job. Besides noise pollution and dumping of construction materials haphazardly affected the hotel environment, resulting in the fall in its occupancy rate. Since February 2006, Sonargaon Hotel faced the lowest occupancy rate of only 30 per cent although its average occupancy rate had always been around 60 per cent.
Orion Group was supposed to complete the Tk. 1400 million renovation job by January, 2007. But it could complete only 30 per cent work even after extension of the contract until June, 2007. Finding no other way, the HIL cancelled the deal with Orion.
Sonargaon's mess paved the way for some of the new hotels to grab business.
"Now we are getting ready to strike again and we are sure that businesses will be back to our hotel," said M A Awal, Director Sales of the Hotel. He said the HIL Board decided to finance the rest of the refurbishment works from its own fund. It will be a complete facelift, he asserted.
The pace of work has got momentum and it is expected that everything will be on track by the end of next month, Awal said.
PR and Communications Manager Selina Momen said the priority works include redecoration of nearly 100 rooms on the 3rd and the 4th floors, the swimming pool, the restaurants, health club and the tennis court.
Sources said the hotel management has estimated that all the jobs would be completed at a cost of 40 per cent lower than that offered to the Accom Engineers of the Orion Group.