Despite a competitive hotel environment, hotels in Prague have witnessed a 6.3% growth in RevPAR in 2012 bolstered by a robust growth in inbound tourism. In 2013, we anticipate continued growth in trading performance due to a slowdown in supply growth and further interest in foreign tourists.
Born and raised in Prague, Tomas’s interest in wine started nine years ago while working as a bartender. “I always found wines more interesting than cocktails. You never stop learning, with so many varieties to choose from and taste. It is an ongoing process of gaining knowledge and I just love it,” expresses Tomas.
Nearly 130 visitors from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria cruised to Prague, for the 1st Hospitality E-Commerce & Revenue Management Conference last Thursday.
This market snapshot is part of a series of articles that HVS produces on key hotel sectors across Europe. In writing these articles we combine the expertise of HVS with STR Global data for each market. Our analysis is based on data for a sample of 74 mainly branded properties as provided by STR Global. Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, attracted more than 5.1 million visitor arrivals and 13.2 million bednights in 2011, representing an 8% (visitor arrivals) and 9% (bednights) increase on 2010. The majority of these were generated from international visitors, which accounted for 86% of total arrivals and 90% of total bednights
Ludek Louda, 52, has valuable experience in the hotel business and extensive experience in travel and aviation industry in Central & Eastern Europe. He started his hotel career as Director of Sales & Marketing in 2002 at the Holiday Inn Prague Congress Centre (IHG). He has worked for travel agency Detur as Country Manager of sales & marketing responsible for Turkey, Tunisia and Greece. In 2005 he came back to the hotel industry and since that time Ludek hold DOSM positions in different 5* hotels, especially in Russia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Turkey - Regional Sales Manager at the Renaissance Moscow, Director of Sales at the hotel Renaissance Atyrau, Director of sales & marketing at the Holiday Inn Samara, Director of sales & marketing responsible for Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Belarus and Russia at the Le Meridien Vilnius – Hotel & Golf Resort. His last position was DOSM at the Corinthia Nevsky Palace St. Petersburg. In his new role, Ludek will report directly to Alexander Schreiter, General Manager of the InterContinental Prague.
Oliver Geyer, 38, started his hotel career in 1995 at the Munich Park Hilton, Germany. He has worked for Hilton, Marriott and Kameha Hotels mainly in Germany, and this appointment is his first experience with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).
Dittrich joins the Augustine Hotel after spending more than 20 years as General Manager of various leading hotels across the globe, most recently as General Manager at the Corinthia hotel in St. Petersburg. Since the mid ‘90s, Dittrich has held Senior Executive level positions in some of the most prestigious hotels in the Far East, the US, and in particular, South America but he is now, he says, ready to return closer to home. Originally from Wuppertal, Germany, Dittrich studied hotel business administration at the Heidelberg Hotel School in Germany, having already spent time working in restaurants and hotels while he was finishing his education. He joined the Intercontinental Hotel Group in 1981 and gradually rose through its ranks before joining the Regent Singapore Hotel as Food & Beverage Manager. He moved to the Westin Hotel and Resort Group in 1989, first as Executive Assistant and then, after a number of other postings, joined the Westin Caesar Park Hotel in Panama as the General Manager in 1995.
HEDNA, the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, will hold its Spring Meeting on 28-30 June 2011 at the Prague Marriott Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic. Innovation and knowledge are the key aspects of this meeting.
Alexander Schreiter took over from Kees Kramer, effective 17th January 2011. He has experience in 4 different countries, Bahrain, England, France and Germany... His first assignment as General Manager was in 2000 at the Forum Hotel Hamburg... In 2002 he moved to the Crowne Plaza Heidelberg and since 2006 he has managed the Crowne Plaza Hamburg.
Beauchamp is not new to Golden City; he was managing the Prague property for six years before he moved to Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: BEE) today announced that the company has signed a share purchase agreement for the sale of the InterContinental Prague to an investment group led by an affiliate of Westmont Hospitality for a total consideration of approximately euro 110.6 million, or approximately euro 297,000 per room.
Born in France with a MBA from Switzerland, Olivier joined Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in 2008 as Hotel Manager in Amman, Jordan. Prior to joining Four Seasons, Olivier had been working in the hotel industry for 16 years with Starwood Hotels in France, Italy, Switzerland and USA, including the St. Regis Hotel in New York. Olivier is married and has a five-year old son and one and a half year old daughter. He spends his free time with his family, enjoys skiing, any water sport, and running. Olivier speaks French, English and Italian.
Kees Kramer has been appointed General Manager of the InterContinental Prague, Czech republic, taking over from Robert Herr, effective 25 August 2010. Kees Kramer first joined IHG in 1973 as Divisional Operations Analyst EMEA and has held various positions such as EAM and Resident Manager InterContinental Riyadh and Resident Manager InterContinental Amman. Kees left IHG in 1984 and rejoined in 1997. Since then he held the positions of General Manager of the InterContinental Des Indes The Hague, General Manager of the InterContinental Tashkent and General Manager of the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Istanbul until 31 December 2007 when these two hotels left the group. In March 2008, Kees Kramer was appointed GM of the Crowne Plaza Amsterdam City Centre and during the past 2 years Kees has overseen the renovation of the hotel. In 2010 he was General Manager of InterContinental Kiev. In his new role, Kees will report directly to Rolf Hübner, Vice President Operations Central Europe.
NH Hoteles broadens its frontiers in Central Europe by entering the Czech Republic. A modern, central hotel, newly built, the cosmopolitan NH Praha Radlicka, makes for the arrival of the biggest Spanish hotel chain in the homeland of Kafka and Dvorak.
Luca Crocco, (43), graduated in Business Administration in Udine, Italy. Luca, Italian, married and with a three-year old daughter, has been working for Hilton Worldwide for the past fourteen years. Luca completed his studies in Business Administration in Udine, Italy. Before joining Hilton, Luca worked at Hyde Park Hotel in London (Trusthouse Forte) and Royal Monceau in Paris (CIGA Hotels). He started his Hilton career in 1996 at Hilton London St. Ermin’s where he held various management positions within Food and Beverage. He then moved to Hilton Belfast, Hilton Glasgow and Hilton Nova Yardinia in Italy as Director of Operations. Luca spent four months at the Conrad Istanbul as interim General Manager, before becoming Director of Food and Beverage for Hilton Europe. He worked in Hungary as pre-opening General Manager of Hilton Visegrad since 2008 before joining Hilton Prague Old Town.
Jodi has extensive sales and marketing knowledge gained over 17 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She has been with The Rocco Forte Collection for seven years most recently as Director of Sales of Marketing at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester where she oversaw the development of core hotel strategy, sales, conferences, marketing, PR, revenue, groups and VIP’s. As part of her day-to-day role at The Lowry, Jodi closely monitored the business mix, maximized yield by managing on a daily basis and quickly reacted to the changing business environment.
Backdated to 30 June 2009, Vienna International Hotelmanagement AG has ended its management of the Aquapalace Hotel Prague. The decision was made by mutual agreement after several intense rounds of talks. The management of the 4-star hotel will be taken over by its owner, Prague-based property and project development company SPGroup a.s.
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is pleased to announce renowned media and communications futurist Gerd Leonhard as the opening keynote speaker at the 2009 ACTE Global Education Conference in Prague (25-27 October 2009).
Waldeck Capital, the developer of The Augustine, which is being touted as Europe's most beautiful luxury hotel, has handed over the keys of the property to operator The Rocco Forte Collection, ahead of the hotel’s opening on 14 May. The Augustine is situated in the historical lesser town of Prague (known as Malá Strana), within a stone's throw of the Charles Bridge, just below Prague Castle and next door to the famous Wallenstein Gardens. This spectacular 101-room hotel has been created from a complex of six historic buildings, including a former brewery and the 13th century Augustinian St Thomas’s Monastery, after which the hotel is named.
Balancing the existing channels whilst growing the new ones for distribution and keeping the costs competitive in each channel are among the key challenges for any airline.