Doha, 19 November 2022

Sheikh threatens not to let fans into hotel rooms

The next hours could see stranded fans in hotel lobbies
Over the next few hours fans from around the world are facing the threat that they cannot
enter their hotel rooms. This could affect thousands of fans enroute to Qatar.

Accommodation agency Khaya has received threats from several hotels of the Al Mansour
group that they will not honour the bookings. The hotels are demanding more money than
what was agreed.

“This is pure extortion”, says Khaya’s CEO Volkhard Bauer. “We are facing this situation for
the last couple of weeks and have kept it low profile. Now we are worried it will all explode
and some poor fans, who have paid thousands of dollars for their trip to Qatar will not be
allowed to enter their rooms.”

“We have a signed letter”, says Bauer “that the hotels agreed to charge $90 per night for an
extra bed, now the hotels are demanding $250”. “It might sound little but it adds up, until
now we have paid but we cannot continue, or so will the extortion”.

Tonight and tomorrow fans will arrive at the hotels Khaya has booked and paid for. Most
affected are the Hotel Al Mansour Park Inn and the 5* VIP Hotel.

Khaya has booked 11 hotels and 4 condominiums at the World Cup. “Our clients include FIFA
sponsors, media, travel agencies and technical suppliers of the World Cup”, says Volkhard
Bauer.

Qatar is their fourth FIFA World Cup. “We booked eight of the hotels through a local Sheikh
and paid for all the contracts.”
A month ago the Sheikh’s team approached Khaya and informed them that the Sheikh
wanted to sell his latest hotel, Velero, a stunning 5* hotel with 240 rooms, close to Lusail
Stadium, where the final of the World Cup will take place. At that moment Khaya had made
pre-payments of $4m for Hotel Velero.

“The Sheikh’s advisors made it crystal clear in a meeting: If we wouldn’t agree to a

cancellation of our contract for the Hotel Velero, all other seven hotel contracts would be
cancelled immediately”. They promised in writing to return the $4m plus fines and a 5%
penalty, as agreed in the contract.
Bauer claims he had no other choice but to agree to cancelling the contract.
“We were blackmailed.”

“We were threatened that the seven other hotel contracts would be terminated.”
“To us it became clearer and clearer that the Sheikh had absolutely no intention to pay back
the $4m deposit.”

On Saturday, 12 November 9 Italian guests were stranded at the 4* Hotel Al Mansour Park
Inn in Doha. When they arrived with their booking confirmation in hand the hotel wouldn’t
hand out the keys. The manager refused them entry to their rooms.
International agency Khaya had booked and paid for their rooms, but on arrival the hotel
demanded an extra payment of $40.000.
Khaya CEO Volkhard Bauer was on site when it unfolded. “We were stunned when the hotel
told us that their “Upper Management” had decided we would need to pay for the first week
of the guests’ stay”. Bauer claims that the hotel rooms were paid for by his agency and the
hotel had no reason not to allow the guests into their rooms.

Bauer had no choice and was forced to cough up the money immediately. “When we asked
the hotel to give us an invoice, they wrote out a piece of paper with the amount they
claimed. I was stunned, our Italian clients were speechless.”
The hotel then issued an invoice and refused to send this invoice via email.
“We suspect the manager didn’t want to leave a paper trail, which could proof what they
were doing”.
After three hours of waiting in the hotel lobby the Italian guests were handed over the keys
and the Sheikh was $40.000 unlawfully richer.

“For us as Khaya it was the most important to protect our clients. Guests to the World Cup
should not be affected by any dispute. Instead we made sure all invoices were paid and that
the World Cup rooms of our guests would be secure.”

The seven hotel of the Sheikh suddenly stopped issuing booking confirmations for 10 days
without giving any reasons. “A perfidious trick by the Sheik and his team to put us under
pressure.” Without a booking confirmation, an ordinary fan cannot apply for the Hayya card,
which guarantees entry to Qatar. “Thousands of guests who had booked with us were
affected.”

Khaya’s team was under a lot of pressure because clients from all over the world demanded
their booking confirmations.

After a a meeting with a representative of the hotels and 2 of our clients, facilitated by
Khaya, the hotels then started issuing the confirmations again.
It wasn’t to be the only episode.

“Our clients don’t know what is happening behind the scenes and we wanted to keep it
secret, but now we have no other choice but to alert the public”.

“We have approached the Supreme Committee, the Ministry of Commerce with their
Consumer Protection Unit and Qatar Tourism and asked for support”
The Supreme Committee sent us an email saying that since this is a commercial dispute, the
are not going to get involved.
“The Consumer Protection Unit wrongly told us that they only deal with individual
consumers and not corporate complaints.”
“And Qatar Tourism automatically assigned us a case number, we have called their hotline
numerous times and were told that someone would contact us”.

Court procedures in Qatar can last for many years or longer. “We are running out of time,
and this is what the Sheikh is counting on”. “We cannot survive, we would have to declare
bankruptcy.”

The Sheik’s team is making Khaya’s life unpleasant where they can, Bauer explains.

“Our contract at Hotel Cielo started on 1 November but we have evidence that the hotel still
sold rooms to the public”.

“The Sheikh’s ultimate goal is for us to agree that we forfeit the $4m deposit we paid for
Hotel Velero, and continuously shows that he is prepared to do anything to make it happen”.

“We don’t know whether other owners in Qatar are playing similar games.”
“It is the most disturbing and unprofessional episode in my career. One day before the
World Cup the eyes of the world are on Qatar, still some Qataris want to extort more money
out of this event”.

For further information:

Volkhard Bauer
volkhard@khaya.global
+974 3361 2019

Events at the Al Mansour Park Inn on 12 November can be viewed on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpd-S5zjwLc

Photos can be downloaded

https://www.dropbox.com/t/OAUyKMWFs0gfoeAM

Next check-ins at Al Mansour hotels:

 Al Mansour Park In - Nov 19th(Argentinian fans)

5 pax  - 9pm 3 pax - 11:30pm
 VIP Hotel - Nov 20th (Mexican fans)
82 pax - 00:30am
 88 pax - 06:45am
 121 pax - 8:30am