Budget hotels fully booked

KUALA LUMPUR: Budget hotels in Chinatown, which is one of the closest to Dataran Merdeka, are a hit with Bersih 4 protesters. Many were fully booked.

Didi, a receptionist at Bunc @ Radius Chinatown said all 20 of the hotel’s rooms, which cost RM80 and above, had been booked.

“But there are still beds available in the dormitories,” he said.

A worker at nearby Lantern Inn said all the rooms in the budget hotel were also booked for the weekend.

“We had to turn away some people,” he said, adding that most of those who walked in to ask for a room were Bersih participants.

Terrence Woo, manager of Hotel Seven Nite, said 90% of its rooms had been booked for the weekend.

“Some came in early Saturday morning to reserve a room,” said Woo, adding that he allowed Bersih protesters to use the hotel’s washroom.

“We are located near Dataran Merdeka and many protesters pass our place,” he said.

Arena Star hotel manager Vivian Lee said rally participants took up more than 70% of the rooms.

The hotel is a five-minute walk from Masjid Jamek LRT, one of the meeting points.

Lee said the rally was “not an inconvenience” to her business, saying that it was part and parcel of being Malaysian.

“Some tour agents, however, skipped our hotel because it is hard to go in and out due to the road closures,” she said.

Hotel Arena Mountbatten, located along Jalan Tun Perak, was fully booked for the weekend but this was due to the long holiday, said its director Anwar Abu Bakar.

He said protesters only made up about 5% of those staying there.

The hotel, he said, also had to close its doors in the afternoon as protesters tried to cool themselves in the hotel’s lobby.

“We told them that they could not be there and they left,” he said.

Anwar said their presence was an inconvenience to guests who wanted to rush to the airport.

“We had to take them somewhere else so they could get a taxi to the airport,” he said, adding that there were delays for those checking in as well because the roads were blocked.