Hotels & Accommodations

The Greek Chamber of Hotels says that the increase in opening hours of shops and museums in the country, as recently proposed by the government, is a positive step towards bolstering tourism.

Hoteliers in the Athens area continue to face painful economic problems and some even face extreme difficulty when it comes to paying running monthly expenses. They say the strong investment in modernization carried out prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics, in conjunction with post-Olympic drop in arrivals, places them in an almost dead-end situation.

Trendwatching.com – an Amsterdam-based independent trend agency that uncovers global consumer trends – says that the desire for a more luxurious “home away from home” has become a popular global trend.

After some two years of radical renovations activity, the Airotel Group of Hotels re-opened its Achaia Beach property, which sits a mere four kilometers from the commercial center and port of Patras.

November 2004 saw a considerable decline in occupancy at Athens hotels of all categories, compared with the same month in 2003, according to the Attica Hotel Association. In some categories, the drop exceeds 25 percent.

Grecotel’s newest hotel, the Larissa Imperial, held its grand opening recently amid hundreds of special guests from the political and cultural sectors.

Athens now has that particular accommodation for everybody, from posh to up-market to business to boutique to hostels. The newest addition to the variety of lodgings came recently with the opening of Seriramis, a hotel with a totally different concept in design and color, a 21st-century creation.

For the month of August at least, hotels in the general and greater Athens region managed to do well with their average occupancy rate hitting 95% during the Olympic Games, says the Attica Hoteliers’ Association.

Hundreds of flights a day seen during the first 20 days of the month of August have been bringing plane-loads of Olympic visitors to Athens, especially during the days leading up to the launch of the Olympic Games. But it’s still too early to confirm whether predictions – that the Games will not attract enough visitors to boost what has undoubtedly been a bad year for tourism – will actually come true or not.

The Poseidon Hotel on the Athens area Paleo Faliron seafront is one of the very rare local hotel units that has been able to cover all the strict prerequisites required to fly the coveted European Union Blue Flag designated only for clean beaches and excellent swimming waters.