Head of Howard Johnson: Occupancy rate has increased, but we cannot predict the trend yet

Autor: Mirabela Tiron 17.04.2011

Five-star Howard Johnson hotel in Bucharest, run by Sonia Năstase, ended the first quarter of this year with 20% higher revenues on the food & beverage segment and a 10% higher occupancy rate.

"In the first three months of this year we saw a rise in the volume of operations against last year, which is of course a positive thing, but not enough to predict the trend of the coming months," said Sonia Năstase, general manager of the five-star hotel.

She is the first Romanian to run a five-star hotel in Bucharest, with all general managers of five-star hotels Intercontinental, Hilton, JW Marriott, Radisson Blu and Crowne Plaza being expats. Sonia Năstase took over at the helm of the hotel controlled by Gabriel Popoviciu in October 2009.

Five-star Howard Johnson hotel operates 285 rooms on a market where the accommodation capacity is 7,440 beds in four and five-star hotel rooms, which account for 66% of the overall accommodation capacity, according to a survey by hotel consultancy Trend Hospitality. Howard Johnson ended last year with 8 million euros in turnover, almost the same as in the previous year, according to hotel officials.