KRALENDIJK – The Bonaire Hotel and Tourism Association (BONHATA) is furious about the fact that the island council has decided in a meeting on Tuesday to transfer the costs for waste water charges almost entirely to its members.

In particular, hotels, which are required to pay an amount of no less than $ 600 per room per year from 1 January 2023, feel disadvantaged. According to them, this is a unilateral tax. In addition, they have difficulty with the fact that the levy can no longer be passed on to guests due to the sudden introduction.

“Everyone knows that trips are booked far in advance and prices are also set well in advance. This sudden introduction is a slap in the face to the hotel owners,” says BONHATA chairman Luite Berkenbosch. Although Berkenbosch himself has now recovered from the worst shock, he does indicate that the members have received special calls about the actions of the Executive Council.

“Especially when you consider that we regularly sit around the table to discuss all kinds of things and this has never been discussed with us in this way,” says Berkenbosch. The costs for a somewhat larger resort are, according to conservative calculations, between 85,000 and 100,000 dollars per year.

Wages

What BONHATA and its members also stings is that they have been in consultation with the same BC for months about raising the lowest wages in the sector. “But the BC must also realize that things have to come from the length or the breadth. If a hotel has a small ton in extra costs due to this waste water levy, then you can imagine that that money cannot be used to improve working conditions at the same time,” says Berkenbosch.

There are voices within the association to break open the so-called Agreement of Kralendijk, in which concrete agreements are made about wages. In addition, BONHATA does not exclude that it will take the Public Entity to court because of the working method that it considers unacceptable.