Hospitality News

In his many travels, Vassilis Vellanis stayed at a plethora of hotels. But for the most part, each was totally impersonal. Some were even downright unacceptable. Friends and business acquaintances – for the past 50 years his family has run an Greek industrial group with plants and offices in western and eastern Europe – told him similar stories about Greek hotels. Each story added pieces to a dream for a perfect hotel.

From the outside, this does not appear to be a particularly distinctive premium hotel. Its classical style, however, designed to blend in with the intentional blandness of the new El.Venizelos airport at Spata, does grab your attention. Once inside, the change is mind boggling.

Although most of the major Athenian hotels that have closed for radical renovations had planned to do so long before the September 11 attack, the timing has turned into a godsend for the rest of the sector. And with bookings down to cover only about 35% available beds, hoteliers should be very pleased with the turn of events.

Tolo Hotels at Tolon, Argolis, has expanded business with the introduction of a new luxury unit christened Tolo Holidays. The unit comes with an A-class original design swimming pool, and a new conference room for up to 120 delegates, complete with audio-visual equipment.

One after another, conferences scheduled for the fall in Athens are being canceled along with the corresponding hotel bookings that go with them. There is no indication that they are simply being postponed.

The Alexandroupoli area in the East Macedonia and Thrace region is about to get its first professional congress center. The unit, being constructed by the Alexander Beach Hotel, opens in the spring and will host up to 1,280 delegates in four halls. The biggest of the four, Alexander Hall, seats 600 delegates.

Chalkidiki’s Possidi Holidays Hotel announces that its hotel complex during the 2001-2002 winter period will close so as to undergo a complete refurbishing and renewal as part of a new investment plan.

AKS Hotels of Cyprus recently added the five-star Annabelle Village on Crete to its stable of hotel units. With the 264 rooms the unit offers, the hotel group now boasts 1,800 rooms in Greece.

Owners of the profitable Parnitha Casino, Hellenic Tourism Properties, have called for bids of interest from international investors interested in taking over the management of the casino on Mount Parnes. So far, some 60 company groups have expressed initial interest.

With a total conference capacity of 8,000 delegates, the new “Marika Capsis 2000” convention center in the Sofitel Capsis hotel on Rodos, which opens this month, is the country’s biggest.