Hotels booked for Carnival

From as early as February 14, Valentine’s Day, some hotels have reported a full house lasting until after Carnival Tuesday. An official at the Cascadia Hotel, Cascade yesterday said rooms are already taken. “We won’t have any free space until after Carnival,” she said. Both reservation desks at Kapok Hotel, Maraval and Courtyard By Marriot, Port-of-Spain, said that the hotels would be filled to capacity from next Wednesday.

Hotel officials stated that guests are arriving from countries all over the world including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Germany and from other regional countries.

Ali Khan, general manager at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, said that although the hotel is not fully booked, this Carnival season is turning out to be better than last year’s. He explained that this was due to the inclusion of renovated rooms that were not available for use last year.

He said the hotel is at 90 percent capacity and he expected this to increase as Carnival Monday and Tuesday draw nearer. Khan said foreigners are finding it challenging to come to Trinidad for Carnival as Caribbean Airlines is offering fewer flights to and from the country. He said guests would be arriving from next week Wednesday or Thursday. On the other hand, flights to Tobago are completely filled in the days leading up to Carnival Monday and Tuesday. When contacted yesterday, an agent at Simpaul’s Travel Services, Port-of-Spain said, “There is no space on any flight to Tobago before Carnival.”

A call to the Tobago Express reservation desk revealed that all 22 flight on both February 16 and 17 are filled. Eight flights on February 18 are similarly unavailable, said the reservation officer.