Several hotels will be opened in big cities by the end of the year, with investors allocating several million euros to build new rooms, despite some owners putting their hotels up for sale due to liquidity shortages.
The biggest investment in the hotel industry will be finished in Cluj, where two hotels are set to be opened this year.
This summer will see the opening of five-star Grand Hotel Italia, with 180 rooms, an over EUR22 million investment. The hotel is held by the Grand Hotel company controlled by Italian businessman Antonio Batani, owner of 11 luxury hotels on the Adriatic Coast.
This will be the largest hotel in Cluj in terms of number of rooms and surface (30,000 square meters) and one of three luxury hotels in Cluj.
Another hotel set to open this year in Cluj is four-star Akantus, with 100 rooms, held by Euro Trend Grup Imobiliar group. The estimated investment in the hotel is EUR5 million.
Several new hotels are also scheduled to open in Bucharest this year. They include Europa Royale (held by Lithuania’s Europa Group) in the Unirii area, Marshall in Dorobanti (owned by the Antonescu family), Carol I in Piata Rosetti (owned by Teodor Meita). The opening of these hotels has been put off several times.
Late this summer will see the opening of DoubleTree (88 rooms) by Hilton Bucuresti in Piata Unirii, as well as of DoubleTree (259 rooms) by Hilton Ploiesti.
Sibiu expects the opening of three-star 125-room hotel Days Inn this year, a brand of international chain Trend Hospitality. The investment in the hotel was not revealed.
Whereas investments were made in developing new hotels even during recession, few investors signed deals to buy hotels.
Josef Goschy, owner of Unita Turism chain, with 3,500 rooms, put up eight hotels for sale back in 2009, but managed to sell only one so far.
“As far as deals are concerned, the hotel market is still in stand-by. I have sold nothing more,” Goschy said.
“There were some interested investors, but I am not about to sell my hotels ‘for peanuts’. If better times come, I may not even sell them after all,” he said.