Several international property websites are offering the purchase of certain Riga hotels, Dienas Bizness writes. Shopping malls and business centres in the Latvian capital are also up for sale. The Hotel Riga has a price tag of EUR 71 million, for example. However, it seems that the hotel owners are asking high prices for their properties. Mihails Morozovs, a partner in the Baltics for Colliers International, says that the sums being asked for are inadequate. Riga has very few hotels that are part of professional chains, which could provide a stable flow of tourists through their global reservation systems. The huge VAT rise facing Latvian hotels this year, from 5 to 21 percent, is obviously one reason why hotels are up for sale. Another reason is the increasingly tense competition. The Latvian Hotel and Restaurant Association believes that as many as 40 percent of the 400 places offering tourist accommodation will go bankrupt because of higher VAT.

 

Dienas Bizness, 2009-03-13