Kathmandu, Jan. 17 -- This time last year, Dom Himalaya Hotel, at Thamel, was bustling with people. In the mornings, the hotel's restaurant had guests queuing up for the buffet breakfast, and throughout the day, there was a continuous flow of guests coming in and going out.

Rooms at the hotel were selling at more than $70 per night and the daily occupancy was anywhere between 85 to 100 percent.

But a year later, things are completely different.

These days, except for a handful of guests, the hotel is eerily quiet. Even though rooms now sell for less than half the price a year ago, the hotel's average occupancy is only around 30 percent.

Dom Himalaya Hotel's case is not an outlier in Thamel, Kathmandu's tourist hub. Before the pandemic...