BPL Bills Having Impact on Baha Mar’s Profitability

While Baha Mar is looking forward to a “soft landing” by the end of the year in terms of meeting its budgeted projections, the resort complex’s President Graeme Davis said yesterday that the increase in power costs have had a “significant” impact on Baha Mar’s profitability.

Davis, who made the comments during the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) board of directors meeting, has said before that Bahamas Power and Light’s glide path to recoup the cost of fuel that it did not pass on to consumers for several months has been detrimental to the hotel, given the increased costs.

He explained that the hotel’s utility costs have increased almost 50 percent.

“From a utility standpoint, we’re up 48 percent in our utility costs right now, just for this part of the year, and forecasting the rest will be up about eight and a half million dollars in utility expenses for the year, and that’s certainly having a significant impact on us,” said Davis.

“We certainly hope that there is relief here as we get to later on in Q3 and Q4 on our BPL expenses. But that is having a significant impact on our profitability.”

In terms of the hotel’s performance, Davis said fall will be “soft”, though he explained that the resort will have some group business. He explained that the resort’s second quarter was ten percent above the same period last year.

“As we go into July and we start to get into the thick of Q3, we’re looking to be just slightly up about two percent over last year,” said Davis.

“But our properties are certainly maintaining the occupancy levels that we had budgeted and forecasted. So, barring any any storms, we’ll certainly look forward to a good soft landing here by the end of the year.”