Marriott, Best Western, Ramada And Starwood Mull Expanding Ops In Romania

“We will open new units in Bucharest, Oradea, Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj and Timisoara, and we seek to reach 49,000 rooms worldwide. We carry talks with several investors, but we have not signed any management contract as yet,” JW Marriott general manager Kurt Strohmayer said on the sidelines of a tourism forum in Bucharest.

 

Marriott owns the JW Marriott five-star hotel in Bucharest.

 

U.S. Starwood also considers new hotels in Romania, said Vincet Levy, director with Starwood’s Acquisitions and Development division.

 

“We are interested in opening new hotels in any city that has a market for it and that is capable to support such investments, like Cluj, Constanta, Timisoara and Bucharest, where we already began negotiations. For us, Romania represents a market with great potential for development and we hope to become key players on the markets in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and eastern Yugoslavia in the next 2-3 years,” Levy said.

 

Ramada Plaza, which owns four hotels in Romania, plans to open six new units in the country in 2009.

 

Belgium-headquartered Rezidor, which operates the brands Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts, Regent Hotels & Resorts, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites, will inaugurate on June 1 its first hotel in Romania under the Radisson brand. The hotel will be located in Bucharest and the company plans to open a second unit under the same brand in Poiana Brasov, center Romania.

 

The list of hotel chains that seek to expand their operations in Romania and in the neighboring countries also includes Spanish group Sol Melia, U.S. Best Western and Intercontinental Hotels Group.