Sheraton hotel: The end of an era

The Sheraton building located at Karachi’s Club Road through the years. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: So much comes to mind when Karachiites think of Sheraton hotel.

There’s the small green lawn, the majestic arches, and the crimson curtains with golden motifs; there’s the heavy wooden furniture, the brown marbled floor, and the glass-walled lobby.

Situated at the end of Karachi’s glorious Club Road is not just any another building, but a piece of history. It is an integral part of the city which has seen the metropolis evolve, stood by solidly, through thick and thin.

Change in the offing

In January, Sheraton will be replaced by the Movenpick Hotels and Resorts, which has signed a 15-year contract with the Arabian Sea Enterprises Limited.

With this switch looming over head, many fear that all the features that made Sheraton what it was may be lost forever.

Although the new management will not be laying off employees, major revamp of the structure, restaurants and staff is expected.

“I’ve seen people being promoted from waiters to managerial posts,” says Muhammad Javed who has been working as a waiter in Sheraton’s restaurant, The Pakistani, for 22 years. “There is nothing much we can do but wait… and pray for the best. Change is not always for the worse.”

In this vein, the hotel management is determined to retain the feel of the landmark hotel.

“We want to create a new package for our customers but don’t really want to change the hotel drastically,” confesses Sheraton’s Public Relations Manager Aqsa Yahya. “We do not want people not to get the Sheraton feel, but with it we also want Movenpick to come out with its own identity. Movenpick will come to Karachi with a bang.”

The whys

Contrary to abounding rumours, the decision to wrap up after three decades is not hinged upon growing violence in the city. It is a purely commercial move.

“Yes, terrorism certainly has affected overall tourism in the country, but that is not why Sheraton has decided to bring its operations to an end,” says Yahya. “Arabian Sea Enterprises Limited, which owns Sheraton Karachi, has simply decided not to renew their contract with Starwood Hotels and Resorts.”

According to Yahya, room occupancy was not really affected by militancy — it was just the nature of bookings that changed. She recalls a time in the 90’s when the hotel was forced to decline requests from corporate houses because they had so many foreigners coming in.

“But now, out of the 407 odd rooms, we hardly have any reservations from foreigners,” she states sadly. “However, our room occupancy has not changed much. What rooms were once occupied by tourists from abroad are occupied by corporate houses.”

Instances of the past

And yet, although Sheraton may not be ending operations due to growing militancy, the hotel industry, once a booming business in Pakistan with many international chains knocking at the door, has indeed seen a nosedive since the country joined the US-led war on terror.

In a span of a decade, three major international hotels have seen attacks.

The first attack was on Sheraton, Karachi, itself when, in May 2002, a car bomb detonated right outside the hotel, killing 11 Frenchmen and two Pakistanis. This was followed by an attack on Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel in September 2008, in which at least 54 people were killed and over 200 injured.

The latest victim to these attacks was the Peshawar Pearl Continental hotel. It was hit in June 2009 with a truck rigged with explosives. Seventeen people were killed and 46 injured.