“Two hotels will become DoubleTree by Hilton (four or five stars), three will become Hampton by Hilton (three stars) and four will be branded as Hilton Garden Inn (four stars),” Adela Cristea, Hilton’s development director for Central and Eastern Europe, told ZF.
Hilton has almost 3,900 hotels throughout the world, 237 of which are affiliated hotels in Europe and 125 are under development.
The Hilton branded hotels in Romania are five-star Athenee Palace Hilton in Bucharest (controlled by businessman George Copos), DoubleTree by Hilton Bucharest Unirii (formerly known as Bucharest City Hotel controlled by Lebanese-born Raafat Sarieddine), Hilton Sibiu (the former Palace Resort & Spa of Nicolae Minea) and DoubleTree by Hilton Oradea (owned by Calipso, held by regional investment fund SIF Transilvania).
A 107-room Hampton by Hilton will open in Cluj, NW Romania, in the first quarter of next year. The hotel is under development in a building owned by a UK-based company.
“We’ve had the fastest expansion on the local market. Romania is a big market with regional centers and domestic and international tourism. It’s a market where few hotels are affiliated to international chains and has room for branded hotels,” Adela Cristea said.
There are several hotels operating under an international brand in Bucharest and Sibiu, but in cities like Craiova, where the Ford plant is, there are no international hotel brands. The affiliation to an international chain is merely 7% in Romania, compared with an European average of 22%.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)