Tinu Sebesanu, CEO of Trend Hospitality, the strategic development partner of Wyndham Hotels in Romania, says the situation on US and European markets will generate lower occupancy rates in the hotel industry and a smaller number of projects.
"We'll feel the impact of the world crisis in terms of traffic, which will entail a lower occupancy rate. Multinationals are slashing their expenses and airlines have more flights per day, which makes some businesspeople no longer stay overnight in Romanian hotels (...)," said Sebesanu.
Several hotels on the market have seen their occupancy rates shrink compared with 2007 and were below budgeted levels. Nevertheless, hotel owners' results were still above last year's levels.
The traffic drop will particularly hurt the four and five-star hotel market, which counts on foreign businesspeople. "The impact will be felt the least on the three-star hotel market, which benefits more from domestic traffic, being in fact the most stable," specified Sebesanu, who added the impact of the crisis would be also visible over the new projects in the hotel industry.
"On the development side, the international crisis will limit financing and hence the number of projects. As Romania is not a mature market, the impact will be smaller," added Sebesanu.
Thus, the developers that do not need to resort to bank loans will profit the most.
Ramada chain will include 7 hotels on the domestic market at the end of this year, with Ramada Plaza in Bucharest, Ramada Iasi and Ramada Brasov being opened this year. At the same time, Best Western Parc in Bucharest will be placed under Ramada's umbrella this year.
"These hotels will cumulate over 1,200 rooms and we'll reach 1,500 rooms next year by opening hotels in Oradea and Cluj. We'll add around 120 rooms to Ramada Nord and we'll open another Ramada Encore in Brasov. We've also signed affiliation agreements for a series of hotels to be opened in 2010," Sebesanu also said.
Sebesanu says that no new Ramada hotels will be opened in Bucharest, with the company planning to enter the Bucharest market with three-star brand Days Inn or with the five-star Wyndham.
Best Western and Golden Tulip also hold a significant number of hotels domestically.
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