The Hotel Industry

[cntower]

Hotel Mehran

Ideally located in the heart of Karachi, Hotel Mehran provides its guests an uncompromising level of services - personal yet efficient and swift. The guests are offered a unique combination of traditional and most up to date facilities in room and suites take you away into the glory of bygone era's and allow you to indulge in their beauty and opulence with exclusive interiors, featuring en suite bathrooms, satellite television and telephone facilities. This elegant hotel offers a very relaxed atmosphere and charm, twenty minutes drive from the airport and close to city's central business and industrial districts and conveniently close to the finest shopping area. Hotel Mehran Karachi in a foreseeable future.

*I cannot take the pictures so I will give you the website
http://www.hotelmehran.com/html/tour.htm

Tel : (92–21) 566-0851
UAN : (92–21) 111-909-909
Fax : (92-21) 567 - 7019

[FK]

Your right that its located right in the heart of Karachi, its a nice Hotel .. pretty old aswell I guess?

But could certainly use a Face-lift!

[ameer]

I read news awhile back that the owner was going to knock it down and build a newer and nicer hotel?

[pakboy]

Five-star hotel site goes for Rs 4.8 billion

* Pakistan Services and Hashwani Hotels boycott bidding

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) auctioned a controversial 13 acres of land reserved for a five-star hotel to the highest bidder at Rs 4.88 billion on Wednesday. Bismillah Niagara Paragon (BNP) group was declared successful with an offer of Rs 75,000 per square foot at the bidding which took place at CDA Headquarters.

The plot is situated near the Convention Centre and investors will be allowed to make the payment in installments over 15 years.

The proposed hotel will have between 100 and 150 service apartments and 300 to 350 rooms.

CDA Chairman Kamran Lashari presided over the bidding process. He later told reporters that a real five-star hotel was badly needed in Islamabad. “Since Islamabad is the capital city, there should be a world class hotel here to accommodate foreign dignitaries who come to attend international conferences and other events,” he said.

Mr Lashari said the bidding had been transparent and only parties with franchise links to international hotel chains were allowed to participate. He said he hoped the hotel would add to “Islamabad’s prestige”.

BNP group chief executive Abdul Hafiz Sheikh said the hotel would be a landmark. The BNP group has franchise links with the US Ritz Carlton and the French Le Meridien hotel chains.

He said the expected cost of the project was between nine to ten billion rupees and would be ready by 2009. Of the seven parties that had qualified for the bidding, five took part: BNP, Tamimi, Pearl, Luxor and Mainland Hasnain Pakistan Limited (MNHPL). Pakistan Services Limited and Hashwani Hotels Limited boycotted the bidding because they felt it was not transparent.

Hashwani Hotels Limited have also filed a petition in Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench challenging the entire bidding process. It claimed that the terms and conditions had been changed unilaterally making it impossible to evaluate the value of the land. The division bench accepted the petition and served notices to Mr Lashari. The CDA had invited expressions of interest from local and foreign firms through advertisements in the international and local press.

[pakboy]

Lahore all set for more hotel accommodation soon

By Mohammed Rizwan

LAHORE: As the city of Lahore prepares to take centre stage as a business and tourism hub in South Asia against the backdrop of the Indo-Pak peace initiative, multinational investors plan to build two luxury hotels in the city to double the top-of-the-line accommodation in two years.

Coming up at Kalma Chowk on Ferozpur Road opposite the Daewoo bus terminal is a five-star hotel with a 400-room capacity sprawled over nearly 12 acres. The project, being built by a Dubai-based multinational brand owned by the royal family of Dubai, is slated for ground-breaking in four months time and will take two years to complete.

The second proposed project, a four-star luxury hotel on 46 acres, will be built very close to the India-Pakistan border at Jallo Theme Park. Both the hotels, according to Punjab Tourism Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, will be completed at break-neck speed keeping in view the dearth of three-star and higher accommodation in Lahore.

The city at the moment has a total three-star and higher capacity of 700 rooms at Pearl Continental, Avari and Holiday Inn. All three hotels reported brisk business for the last one year and expect an increase of 100 per cent once business gets into full swing in a year or so. “There is already an estimated increase of 25 per cent in tourist inflow from India and other countries as well from Lahore and the figure is expected to double this year,” said Minister Aslam.

“Both the hotels are being built in the private sector and are at feasibility stage at the moment, so it is hard to tell about the total financial layout. Likewise Jallo Theme Park is a multi-million, multi-purpose project and the hotel will be part of project,” said the minister.

“We’ll play facilitator and the entire activity will be launched and run by the private sector. But we are aware of the fact that Lahore has very limited accommodation and it needs to increase very soon keeping in view the developments between India and Pakistan,” said the minister.

His views were echoed by the major hospitality industry operators in the city. “We are packed to capacity even now and we have to refuse lots of booking due to lack of space,” said Nasim Chaudhry, front-office manager at PC. “Ever since the thaw in relations between the two countries, the demand for rooms has increased several fold and is still rising,” said the manager. “A lot of Indian guests stay at our hotel and the number increases several times over on special occasions such as cricket series and religious festivals,” said the manager. “At the moment we are full for the next two months.”

“Lahore hasn’t seen a new hotel in 10 years. Now it’s time to build two or three new ones to cater to existing and future needs,” said Aslam Khan, bookings manager at Holiday Inn.

The Avari too has seen a steep rise in business last year. “Overall things are looking up in Pakistan for the hotel industry and this Indo-Pak friendship is working as a catalyst,” said Rashid at the reception of Avari. “I think there is room for four or five new hotels in the city.”

Minister Aslam said that apart from building large projects, the government is also encouraging the private sector to build small guesthouses on Gulberg’s Main Boulevard and adjoining areas to cater to short-term needs. “We are on it. And in two years time Lahore will be ready to cope with the pace of Indo-Pak business and cultural cooperation,” said the minister.

[huit]

^ I did notice some construction material on the site of the Ferozpur Rd wala hotel though Trucks etc have been parked there for the past 8-9 months!

[FK]

8-9 Months?

Has it been delayed or something??

[pakboy]

well there are a few malls u/c in that area is well, you must have seen them.

[huit]

Originally Posted by pakboy

well there are a few malls u/c in that area is well, you must have seen them.

Only one on Ferozepur road and that too an ugly one - Ahad Tower. (Atleast the renderings make it look ugly)

[pakboy]

Originally Posted by huit

Only one on Ferozepur road and that too an ugly one - Ahad Tower. (Atleast the renderings make it look ugly)

there is a few more, salaar center and rabi center is well.

[ZK]

Well i m not trying to be offensive, but we hear a lot about hotel projects and the fact is that not a single one has been constructed yet since past 10 years. I m begining to feel that its all just over-hyped.

[HasanB]

Whether they are over hyped or not, the fact is that Lahore especially needs top class hotels badly. There is a huge demand at the moment and a rather large shortage of supply. This has resulted in PC, Holiday Inn and Avari being able to hike up their prices.

I recently phoned up PC and Holiday Inn to enquire about prices. PC offered me a room in the old wing for 6500 rupees a night and 7200+ a night in the new wing. Holiday Inn offered me a room at 6000 rupees a night. Just a year or so ago a room at PC was at 4000 a night and even less before that.

[huit]

Originally Posted by ZK

Well i m not trying to be offensive, but we hear a lot about hotel projects and the fact is that not a single one has been constructed yet since past 10 years. I m begining to feel that its all just over-hyped.

At least one Hotel project is "almost" complete - Parklane Towers in Lahore Cantt. thanks to Gen. Zarrar (the ex-corp commander Lahore) who took Rs. 1b as a bribe to allow the hotel to proceed with the construction! (structures like that aren't allowed in Cantt.). I'm not sure but I've heard it'll be Sheraton.

Construction of quite a few malls has already started, this includes the 19+ storey tower "Boulevard Heights" (Main Boulevard), Jeff Heights, some unknowns on Main Boulevard and few on Jail Road.

The structure of MCB's main branch on Jail Rd. is also complete and it looks massive and quite good - that rendering we saw few months back didn't do justice to it! (But I still maintain, Nayyar Ali Dada is still an over-rated architect).

[Its_Waqas]

The construction was allowed by the Govt, and it is Sheraton its construction was stopped some years ago due to security reasons but now an apartment block is slowly rising there.

I thought Boulevard Heights was 19 storeys tall (above ground, total 23 storeys).

And Ahad Tower also has some issues. Apparently the builder did not get clearence from LDA. btw it belongs to some MNA.

I also think Nayyar Ali Dada is not as good as people say he is.

[FK]

Lets just hope they get constructed, I have to agree with ZK .. there is alot of new projects going on but much less construction going on.

BTW;

Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Stockton-on-Tees
Posts: 911

^

[UnitedPakistan]

hmmm Fahad i think u need to get ur head checked lol j/k

[huit]

I wrote 29, oops my bad! its 19+

[huit]

Going by the trend in Pakistan of calling every lame 4-5 storey building a "Tower" and every new housing society a "City", I'd rather see a classy low-rise building at that Ferozpur Rd. site. (although I'd love to see a REAL tower too).

There are quite a few lame projects (mostly malls) coming up aswell, one low-rise in New Garden Town by the name Garden Heights/Tower (it's few yards from Ibrahim Trade Centre on the same lane). Jeff Heights is coming up right next to Hafeez Centre, its architecture is a perfect example to shou how buildings should not look like. I personally don't even like Aashiana's rendering - although it might look good when built. Lahore Centre (Main Boulevard) looks good - it also houses Al-Warid Telecom's offices (Al-Warid also has 3 floors in EFU House). Al-Latif Centre (Main Blvd.) is okay aswell, New Auriga looks exceptionally well. Rabi centre is under-construction - it'll look good for sure.

Waqas, any idea when will they start working on bringing Falletis down?? Lahore will have another good 5* once that is re-built.

[pakboy]

renderings look ugly, but the real struchures look better.

[starstruck]

Does anyone know the story of the Falletis Hotel in Lahore? Is it still operating as a hotel? It is quite a historic place....

http://pakistaniat.com/2010/06/22/av...comment-202375