Marriott Hotel bids

Apr 19, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The bids for the local Marriott Hotel are in, and they shed light. The six bids ranged from a high of US$65 million to a low of US$25 million, with several local entities among those indicating their interest. Among the bidders, local businessman Robert Badal came in with the second highest bid of US$55.5 million. In the context of Guyana, and the prospective purchase a hotel valued at US$60 million, this says plenty.

Whether it is the high American bidder, the one from Jamaica, or those from Guyana, the bidding participants have all shown their hands in the clearest fashion, and there is a persuasive power to their interest. It is that purchasing the Marriott Hotel would be a sound investment, a rich opportunity, one that stirs visions of handsome returns. Without exception, these are not rookie investors, but very astute men, and wise in the ways of commerce. It must be, therefore, that each bidder is already excited by certain images dancing in the head.

Images of crowded check-in lobbies, well-populated pick-up and deposit areas, and parking lots. Alongside those, they can visualize bustling bars and elevators going up and down with new visitors staying at the hotel. In other words, to buy the Marriott Hotel in today’s Guyana is the equivalent of buying a sound and safe bank, a most profitable one.

It is a mystery why anyone would want to put such a business, such an obvious cash cow, on the sales block. It is a bigger mystery, which only Guyana’s man of magical moves, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo knows, regarding why the Marriott Hotel is not held onto, and milked for all it is worth. Guyana owns it, and at great cost, so it makes perfect sense to squeeze all the returns that can be had out of it. Let this same Marriott Hotel serve as the evidence that, finally, there was one investment decision, as secretive and suspicious as it was, that paid back the Guyanese taxpayers for their money that was spent on it.

This is a time of great oil discoveries in Guyana, with this country the most promising, the widest open, oil frontier without match in the world today. Where there is oil, there is a large and long river of downstream businesses that have to be setup to support its needs. By itself alone, the presence of oil means that many workers will be coming from foreign shores to keep the rigs operating, the wells running, and the boats coming and going. More workers mean more hotel occupancy, at least in the early stages and for short-term stays. More downstream business possibilities mean more investors from the outside flocking to Guyana so see what slice of the Guyana oil pie they can get for themselves. Investors and their teams need quality places to stay, and the Marriott is sure to fit their requirements. In other words, the hotel business is among the best to be in at this time in Guyana, and the Marriott is sitting close to the top of the hospitality chain.

Guyanese business magnate, Robert Badal, is known to be agile on his feet where business prospects are concerned. The fact that he has put in a bid of US$55.5 million says all that needs to be said about the golden opportunity that purchasing the Marriott Hotel is almost guaranteed to represent.

Mr. Badal already owns and operates the Pegasus, so he has firsthand insights of the state of the hospitality business in Guyana today, and what the future holds for the sector. Though he already owns the huge Pegasus Hotel, it says something that he has not only bid for the Marriott, but the level of his bid speaks for itself. It would be nice if a Guyanese business with long and proven roots here were to be the successful bid since the highest bid does not necessarily have to prevail.

If this were to happen, Guyanese would have the satisfaction of savoring what would be the one ray of positive in all the questions and controversies that have shrouded the Marriott Hotel from the inception, and which have also dogged this surprising decision to sell it.

bidders, businessman, Editorial, local, Marriott hotel, Robert Badal

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Marriott Hotel bids

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Marriott Hotel bids

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