Bangkok hotels cut their losses, shut doors

With the protesting ‘red shirts’ in Bangkok’s Rajaprasong intersection dug in for the long haul, the management of hotels in the area announced this morning that they are temporarily closing from noon until April 25. This includes the Grand Hyatt Erawan, InterContinental, Centara Grand at CentralWorld and Holiday Inn.

According to a report in Bangkok’s English-language Nation newspaper, occupancy levels in the Rajprasong area, which is filled with five-star hotels and upscale shopping malls, were driven down to as low as 2 percent by the political protest.

But it’s not just Rajaprasong that’s feeling the red shirt heat. Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association, was quoted by the Nation as saying all hotels “are in bad shape as there are no tourists coming to the country."

Over in Bangkok’s Silom district, another popular tourist zone, more than 1,500 soldiers moved in yesterday to guard the area ahead of a planned rally by the protesters which has since been cancelled. As of now no Silom hotels have closed, but their occupancy levels are being hit hard too. In a statement released by Chanin Donavanik, CEO of Dusit International, Silom Road's luxury Dusit Thani Bangkok has increased its security since February but the hotel and all restaurants are open as normal.  

“We believe that the situation has affected not only Dusit International, but also the hospitality and travel industry in Thailand as a whole,” said Chanin. “This of course brings us disappointment as we achieved a great performance in the first quarter of this year, and had a strong finish forecast for the year end. We expect the issue to be resolved by the second quarter and look forward to be back on track soon. We have received cancellations from our guests. However, we are not able to provide figures at this period of time.”   

For the latest on Thailand's political situation, visit CNN.com.