Hospitality News

The Athens-based Airotel group renames its Riva unit after the group’s founder, Stratos Vasilikos. The Stratos Vasilikos Hotel on Mihalako-poulou, after being closed for a radical renovation program, will reopen in the early part of next year, in lots of time for the 2004 Games.

Hotel Study 2003, which has just been released by JBR Hellas, shows that the gross operating profit of Greek hotels last year dropped by some four points. Resort and first-class units are reportedly down even more by 5-10%.

For the first five months of this year, overnight stays in the Athens region dropped by 16% when compared with the same period last year, according to the latest statistics released by the Attica Hoteliers’ Association. The greatest loss in stays occurred at the capital’s luxury units, but the association believes that next year’s Games, along with the implementation of the Attica Prefecture’s advertising and promotion program, and the completion of the many tourism-related infrastructure works, will turn the tide before the end of the year.

Dionysis Bozikis, a cardiologist by profession, has created a little lodging gem hidden in the center of downtown Athens. His “Magna Graecia Suites” hotel was created from a three-story building designed and built by the German architect Ernst Ziller in 1898. This exemplary building now houses 12 unique suites with a very homey yet museum-like atmosphere.

Greece’s biggest hotel chain, Grecotel with 24 Grecotel Resorts and affiliated City hotels, placed the finishing touches on its Grecotel Kos Imperial Thalasso luxury resort complex recently.

Peter Van der Vliet, general manager of the Hilton Athens and Yianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki, president of the Athens 2004, signed an agreement last month whereby the hotel becomes an official International Olympic Committee headquarters hotel during the 2004 Olympic Games here in Athens.

There are a plethora of complaints coming from Greece’s hotel sector regarding difficult times, desperately low room rates and a severe drop in business. Perhaps so. Figures released recently by the ICAP Data Bank, however, tell a different story. These figure show that 2001 was perhaps the most profitable year for hoteliers since 1996. It was definitely a good year for hoteliers in the Attica region.

The dream of most Greek small business owners is for their children to follow in their footsteps and expand the family business. In most cases, however, their children follow their own dreams. In rare cases, all of the children’s dreams follow that of the founder. One such dream lives and thrives on Myconos.

Greek hoteliers are turning to domestic travelers in order to cover the loss of foreign arrivals expected this year. Many hoteliers already are working with local travel agents to create package programs with an enticing pricing policy. Travel agents and hoteliers expect to work with banks (credit cards) so as to ensure quick payment and cheap prices.

Panhellenic Hoteliers Federation President Vassilis Minaides believes that the Greek hotel sector, even though it has made major improvement strides over the past couple of years, is not competitive enough.