Bucharest's Crowne Plaza five-star hotel, owned by businessman George Copos, closed last year with a 48% profit margin, up 3% year-on-year, alongside turnover worth around 11.5m euros (almost 39m RON).
"This year, we plan to maintain turnover at the same level amid rising competition, however, rising costs for energy and salaries could bring a 2-3% decline in profit," said Pierre Boissel, general manager of Crowne Plaza.
In 2007, both accommodation and the food & beverages segment contributed equally to the hotel's revenues, whilst most of Bucharest's hotels derived the majority of their turnover (60-70%) from accommodation.
According to Boissel, the share contributed by the two is beneficial, despite the higher costs involved for the food & beverage segment.
The launch of fresh competitors on the market is also creating recruitment problems. "The hotel market is coping with personnel shortages because the other hotels that enter the market have recruited trained personnel and refuse to train staff themselves. I've opened several hotels in various countries and I haven't witnessed this mentality before. I think this is negative, short-term thinking," stated Boissel, who added that Crowne Plaza has not lost a great deal of staff to competition.
"We haven't had problems related to the departure of a large number of employees. At the same time, last year salaries rose by 18%," said Boissel. As a result, the higher costs will have to be covered by price hikes.
"The price of a room will increase by 3%. I believe that in the long term the prices of 5-star hotels will level out," explained the hotel's general manager.
Crowne Plaza is set to start an investment that envisages the expansion of the accommodation capacity by 80-90 rooms, on top of the hotel's already 164 room-capacity.
"We started with the modernisation of the kitchens, which will be finalised this month at a cost of around 2m euros, and we'll continue by adding around 80-90 rooms. We don't know the sum earmarked for this project because it's still in an assessment phase," specified Boissel.
Ana Hotels group, controlled by Copos, also includes 3 hotels in Poiana Brasov, and another two hotels in Eforie Nord. In addition, Copos also owns Bucharest's Athenee Palace Hilton 5-star hotel.
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