Bucharest-based Howard Johnson hotel, opened this year, in the first six months registered an average occupancy rate of about 50%, said Antoni Kuhnen, the general manager of the hotel.
"These results are in line with our expectations. For the following months of this year we are expecting the occupancy rate to reach 75%, which would amount to an average of 60-65% for the first year of operations. We anticipate turnover standing at about 6 million euros for the entire year," Kuhnen stated.
Howard Johnson is the former Dorobanti hotel, which has been renovated following investments worth about 30 million dollars. The hotel was inaugurated this February.
"Since the market in office space is so dynamic in Bucharest and demand is so high, we have decided to stick to our core activity and expand the hotel's event facilities with a new event hall," Kuhnen also said.
Howard Johnson has an accommodation capacity of 285 rooms and apartments, to which are added restaurants, bars, conference halls with a total capacity of over 1,000 seats, a health club and a two-level guarded underground car-park.
The hotel is rated at five-stars, with one night at the Howard Johnson Grand Plaza starting from 150 euros, during peak- season periods.
The owner of Bucharest's Howard Johnson Grand Plaza is Grand Plaza Hotel SA, which uses the brand on the basis of a franchise contract. The company's shareholders, all Romanian natural persons, are the same as the stakeholders in Parc Hotel SA, which owns Bucharest's Parc and Turist hotels.
Of these, Turist is closed for renovation and will be included in the same Howard Johnson chain, while Parc Hotel is already part of the Best Western network, currently the largest foreign hotel network on the Romanian market.
Howard Johnson chain has however announced that it plans to develop a franchise network in Romania and to affiliate another eight hotels over the next six years. "We are in advanced talks with the owners of some hotels based in Constanta, Braila and Sibiu, with a view to affiliating them to Howard Johnson," Kuhnen stated. He does not rule out the possibility of setting up a new Howard Johnson hotel in Bucharest, either.
Howard Johnson chain is part of Cendant group, the top franchiser in the tourism sector, comprising 5,650 hotels.
The group's other brands are Days Inn, Travelodge, Ramada, Knights Inn, Super 8 Motel and Wingate Inn. The Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel brand has the highest classification out of the international chain's other five units, the rest of these being Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, Howard Johnson Hotel, Howard Johnson Inn and Howard Johnson Express Inn.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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