Athenee Palace Hilton, one of Bucharest''s main five-star hotels, will kick-start a 3m dollar investment programme (2.3 million euros) this summer for the renovation of its rooms. Last year the hotel saw its turnover exceed expectations.
"The investment programme will start in August and will target the extensive refurbishing of rooms and introduction of additional Internet access and entertainment facilities. The works will last for 18 months, but hotel activities will not be interrupted since the work will be performed in stages," said Bert Fol, general manager of the Hilton hotel.
Hilton''s turnover last year exceeded 22 million dollars (17.7 million euros), following an almost 25% increase on the preceding year.
"2004 was one of our best years since the hotel was opened and the first year our occupancy rate went beyond the 70% threshold. Tariffs went up, too, after the depreciation of the dollar against the local currency," explained Fol.
He said that most revenues by the hotel were dollar-denominated, while costs are ROL-denominated, with last year''s exchange rate developments causing 10-15% tariff rise.
Net profits by the hotel grew by over 30% in 2004 compared with 2003.
Another project planned for 2005 is the complete renovation of the hotel''s La Pergola restaurant and its transformation into a themed restaurant.
Last year the hotel invested in renovating its health club as well as installing new TV sets in its rooms and introducing wireless broadband Internet and new entertainment facilities. Fol says that revenues from the organisation of conferences and events and from the hotel''s bars and restaurants were the most dynamic last year. "This activity contributed around a third of the hotel''s revenues," he said.
Other five star hotels in Bucharest include the J.W. Marriott, Crowne Plaza, Howard Johnson and Intercontinental.
"For the time being there is no news about the opening of any other five-star hotels, but I believe new names will enter the Bucharest market since the opening of the Howard Johnson last year did not cause occupancy rates to fall - on the contrary, they went up. The inflow of foreign direct investment into Romania is on the rise, and so is demand for hotel services from businesses," said Fol.
Bert Fol, of Scottish origin, took over the running of the Hilton two and a half years ago. Previously, he ran operations at six other Hilton hotels in England, Egypt, Greece and Scotland.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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