Grand Bahia Principe is being unfair

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am writing with reference to the article ‘Take it or leave it’, published in The Gleaner on July 6. The Grand Bahia Principe Hotel and Resorts in St Ann, which is part of a large conglomerate, is not only imposing unfair terms on small businesses, they are using them to help fund their hotel operations, despite the fact they are more established and have greater access to funding.

The resort also enjoys more repeat business, which generates higher sales and larger profits than smaller scale companies which supply them with goods. The hotel now requires these small businesses to give them 60 days’ credit when they get paid as soon as their guests check out, with the average stay being around seven days.

To add insult to injury, the hotel gets paid in US dollars while their local suppliers get paid in Jamaican dollars, and may suffer a loss because of exchange rate differentials.

The Ministry of Tourism should look into this grossly unjust practice, with a view to having this hotel and any other which imposes unfair terms on their local suppliers, to have them improve the tenure of bill settlements to reasonable time frames.

NORMAN MARSH