The Howard Johnson hotel chain plans to develop a franchised network in Romania and affiliate eight more hotels in the next six years.
"We want to develop a franchised network in Romania and sell the Howard Johnson brand to other hotels in Bucharest and the provinces. We are already in talks with hotel owners from Bucharest, Sibiu, Braila, Craiova and Poiana Brasov. We will have eight Howard Johnson hotels in Romania within six years," stated Antoni Kuhnen, general manager of the Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel in Bucharest.
This is actually the former Dorobanti Hotel, completely refurbished and reopened to the public this February.
Romania is the first and only SE European country where a Howard Johnson licence has been sold, and Kuhnen says the chain wants to consolidate its position on the Romanian market first before tapping into the markets of nearby countries.
The owner of the Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel in Bucharest is Grand Plaza Hotel SA, a company that uses the brand under a franchising contract.
Its shareholders, all of whom are Romanian individuals, are the same as in the case of Parc Hotel SA, which owns the Parc and Turist Hotels in Bucharest.
They plan to make the same refurbishment investment in the Turist Hotel, which will be similarly included in the Howard Johnson chain under a franchising contract.
"The Turist Hotel will be closed this summer when refurbishment works are scheduled to begin. The investments will reach 22 million euros - money which will come from the company's own resources and from banking loans, mainly from BRD," Kuhnen added.
The Parc Hotel is already part of the Best Western chain, the largest foreign hotel chain operating in Romania at the moment.
Howard Johnson Grand Plaza, the former Dorobanti Hotel, currently sees a 70% rate of occupancy, compared with the average yearly target of 62%.
"Most of our clients are foreign business people that come from the US, UK, France, Germany and Austria," Kuhnen said. The hotel has hosted about 12 events thus far.
Kuhnen did not reveal any figures as to the revenues of the Howard Johnson Hotel until now, but specified the full-year turnover target was some 10 million euros for 2004. georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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