Luxury hotels in Paris take a hit

Paris

THE first wave of cancelled reservations struck Le Bristol with crushing force after last weekend's terrorist attacks, across town from the five-star hotel and its elite Right Bank neighbourhood. Within 72 hours, the tally of lost bookings exceeded half a million euros (S$747,770).

On Saturday morning, tourists and their wheelie bags were steadily rolling out of the Best Western Opera Diamond, a boutique hotel a short walk from the Palais Garnier opera house, making a hasty departure after the shootings and bombings about two miles east had left 129 dead. More than 50 per cent of the hotel's reservations were cancelled immediately in the aftermath, until the cascade of calls tapered off. Then the phones went virtually silent, with no new bookings.