Months before the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), some motel owners in Belem (Pennsylvania) expected to renovate the venues and turn them into boutique hotels or hostels to accommodate visitors arriving in town for the event. The fact is that many establishments did not receive a large number of guests, and some had zero demand.
The idea seemed simple: to use the structure to receive delegations from countries participating in the UN Climate Summit (between 10 and 21 November) or to host other visitors arriving in the capital, Pará, during the event. To achieve this, the owners changed the decor, replaced the round beds with square ones, and invested in painting and other renovations.
The change aims to remove the provocative aspects of the venues, which mainly target couples, and avoid embarrassment. According to the plan, the value of the renovations will be recovered during the summit, and the structure will remain as a legacy. Some motels even invested R$100,000.
According to the Brazilian Motel Association (ABMotel), there is no official balance of the number of vacancies available and filled for COP30, but at least five entrepreneurs confirmed to the report that Bound Who had done renovations to the dome and were unable to find guests.
This is the case of FIT Motel. The space was not reserved. Work began in February, according to owner Ricardo Teixeira, who is also director of ABmotel in Pará state.
“The value of the renovation will depreciate over time longer than the planning was done,” he says.
“Daily activity has not been affected. Movement is still normal. There is no loss. Revenue forecasts will not be considered, because we do not have daily capacity, as planned.”
In the case of the Só Prazer Hotel, in Maritoba, a city located in the Belém metropolitan area, out of 33 vacancies created, 11 were filled. According to Cristiano Ribeiro, the owner of the place, the guests are all foreigners and are in Brazil to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).
“Two years ago, we started renovating the apartments with our own resources. We were not able to do it all, and there are only ten apartments left without renovation.”
He believes the investment can be recovered in the long term, as clients will now have a better structure. It also highlights the institution’s experience with foreigners as a differentiator.
“The amounts initially charged by the hotel industry distorted the overall image of accommodations,” he comments.
Alberto Braga says he invested more than R$100,000 to transform the Acropol Hotel into the Acropol Guesthouse. He replaced TVs and air conditioners, painted them, put in box beds in 80% of the rooms, and applied other finishing touches.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to fill what we expected. Out of 30 apartments, we were able to get only 5 apartments. We invested in something and shot ourselves in the foot, but life goes on,” he laments.
According to him, even after the 30th COP, the facility will continue as a guest house. The idea for the transformation came about because, in his estimation, the hotel industry had “broken.”
“There is no longer demand for use by young people between the ages of 18 and 30. They no longer frequent motels. Parents nowadays are very mature, and allow their children to date at home. Only those who go to motels with their lover go to motels. The approach has changed. That is why we have turned the switch,” he says.
“To be very honest, this COP order was absolutely necessary to recover what we invested, but unfortunately it will continue in the long term. I thought it was immediate (in quotes) (recovery of investment).”
Acropole, located in Cidade Velha, Belém, has charged daily rates of R$350 during the COP30 period. Braga also says that high prices have kept customers away from establishments, and even discouraged many people who intended to visit the capital, Pará.
He hopes to be able to recover the investment within a year. The businessman says the climate event gave clear visibility and could help increase tourism demand.
At the beginning of the year, with the number of beds in the hotel chain insufficient given the expected number of visitors expected at the 30th session of the COP, motels in Belém prepared to provide accommodation for participants.
The capital, Pará, months before the event, had about 18,000 vacancies, while the expected audience was between 40,000 and 50,000 people. The capital region has 2,500 motel rooms, which can accommodate 5,000 people, according to the Brazilian Motel Association.
The headquarters of the United Nations Climate Change Conference has been witnessing an accommodation crisis since January due to exorbitant prices charged by hotels and owners of properties available for rent during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). Some countries even asked Brazil to change the location of the event.
Accommodation prices in the greater Belém area accumulated 19.17% in the 12 months ending in October, according to data released by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). This was the largest increase in service in the 16 capital and metropolitan areas surveyed in the IPCA (broad national consumer price index).
Only in October did hotel and real estate prices fall in Belém, already in the final stage of the COP30, with a decline reaching more than 60%, according to Abih-PA (Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry of Pará) and Creci-PA (Council of Real Estate Brokers of Pará).
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