Greek Hotels Want Loans

The president of the Hellenic Hotel Federation, Andreas Andreadis, recently requested the intervention of Bank of Greece’s chairman, Yiorgos Provopoulos, in regards to bank policies that in many cases can cause “unpleasant developments” in the hotel industry.

Mr. Andreadis stressed that recent factors and events such as the increased risk of dealing with tour operators from abroad; delays in last year’s payments; the reduction of down payments; and the increase in loans (taken out for hotel renovations) have created a “credit suffocation” for the hotel sector.

He underlined that in order to survive and raise funds for operations hotels turn to banks for assistance to increase their liquidity (working capital, discounted checks, loans for public debt, etc.).

However, the federation’s president said that many banks either refuse to give out loans (citing internal formalities) or simply seize the opportunity to renegotiate existing loan agreements at the hotels’ expense.

Mr. Andreadis warned that such tactics are likely to lead to the collapse of hotels, which in turn will leave a negative impact on the growth and employment of Greece.