[size=55:2yx4opjj]Sofia echo

Mountain man

The Swiss, perhaps like most "
surrounded"
nationalities, tend to be polyglots and sponges for other cultures.

Take Christian Dangel, for example, the 50-year-old general manager of Sofia's Park Inn Hotel. It's a case of have passport, will travel. On July 18, he was told that his next assignment would be in Bulgaria. On July 28, he was ensconced in Sofia. Zurich is his home city, his mother tongue is German, he picked up Spanish through living in Chile as a child (pre-Allende and the Pinochet coup), knows French and Italian and can now read some Bulgarian.

The Park Inn, which opened under new management in August, is perhaps best described as the Radisson's little brother. Both are part of the expanding Rezidor group;
the Park Inn is the four-star brand, unlike the five-star Radisson. Formerly the Greenville Hotel, the running of the hotel was taken over by Rezidor in August and the next few months were spent re-branding it, although Fairplay International still owns it.

Re-branding

All hotels in the Rezidor group are either managed, leased or franchised. Dangel does not see the Park Inn as a competitor to the Radisson, more a complement. Prices are slightly more modest, although, as Dangel says, this is more a reflection of brand qualification, not of the hotel's standards, which are exemplary.

"
A five-star hotel has certain obligations. At the Park Inn, for example, we offer a mini-bar in the rooms but the client has to ask for it. Perhaps it's true that top end management may opt for the Radisson, whereas middle management come to the Park Inn,"
he says.

This Park Inn, the 100th in the world at the time of the takeover, is part of the Rezidor's burgeoning empire;
the group's expansion is currently at its strongest in Eastern Europe.

Permanent tenants

The Park Inn Sofia has 113 units – 77 rooms and 36 apartments. The hotel is home to long-term guests – including some Bulgarians – who have stayed five years at the hotel, ever since its previous incarnation as the Greenville. Apartments have one or two bedrooms and some have a kitchen and dining room. "
Tenants"
cannot buy their apartments.

"
Our apartments are up to 160 sq m,"
says Dangel. "
They may cost slightly more than if you rent a normal apartment but guests get the additional services offered by the hotel. The rate for an apartment is certainly lower on a daily basis than the rent for a room. We never do contracts longer than a year. All our tenants will have their contracts re-negotiated in August"
– the first anniversary of Rezidor taking control. "
We rent several apartments to embassies and companies who have contractual projects for their staff."


Best of both

Clients can make full use of the room service and the Park Inn has a reciprocal arrangement whereby guests at the Radisson – while exploiting their hotel's superior business facilities – can then use the spa, fitness facilities and swimming pool (the Radisson lacks a pool) at the Park Inn for free. The hotels overlap in other ways;
IT, accounting, financial control and human resources are shared out.

Dangel lives near the Park Inn in an apartment in Lozenets;
he can even see the hotel from his balcony, so he jokes he can keep an eye on business out of hours. He sees his natural competitors as other four-star hotels such as the Metropolitan Hotel in Mladost. He cites the superior locale as a great advantage – the garden and green surroundings – perhaps this explains why The Park Inn hosts weddings every weekend from spring until summer.

Like other general managers, he knows that promoting Sofia as an attractive destination is integral to success. The city as a whole needs to get a larger cake before it can be divided up into adequate slices.

One of the Park Inn's biggest source of clients is the nearby state-of-the-art Tokuda hospital. The hospital has one of the best multiple sclerosis treatment centres in Bulgaria, so patients may choose to seek their (non-operative) daily care at the Tokuda while staying at the Park Inn opposite. "
Business tourism"
is increasingly popular due to the competitive rates in Sofia as a whole – the Rainbow Plaza conference centre is nearby – but tourism, as he comments, is increasingly eclectic. Next winter Dangel hopes to capture more of the skiing market. We also note that the Maleeva tennis club (run by the magical Maleeva sisters and their mother) is a stone's throw away, so Dangel says – only half jokingly – that "
tennis tourism"
could be a possibility at some point.

Dark horse

Dangel has fairly footloose connections. He spent 11 years working as an independent hotelier (he's been in the business for 25 years) in South America – in Chile, Mexico and Peru – and two in Abu Dhabi. But Eastern Europe, apart from the odd holiday in Greece and Turkey, was unknown territory for him.

He's been with the Rezidor group for four-and-a-half years, his most recent stints being at the Radisson hotels in Basel and Lucerne. This is Dangel's first appointment as general manager;
before that he was in sales and marketing and so he's well placed to make a key observation. He believes that Bulgaria undersells itself considering the scale and diversity of its offer.

"
I have many friends who have promised to visit once winter ends but they all say the same, that this is the first time they've thought of visiting Sofia. Bulgaria needs a more prominent position on the map;
it needs to advertise itself better at international fairs, although, of course, all this costs money,"
he says.

Like many newcomers to Bulgaria, he was surprised at the sophistication and intelligence of the people.

"
Young Bulgarians are very Westernised in terms of their dress and appearance, although, of course, if you talk to them you become aware that some of them grew up under a different political system. I was also surprised that Sofia is such a green city with many forests and parks."


Marketing the hotel

Although Dangel notes increasing numbers of visitors from Japan, Turkey and Cyprus – as well as a constant flow from the UK, USA and Canada – he concedes the impact of the crisis. "
December was busy, then business went down markedly in the first half of January. That's when I'm even more happy than usual to have the permanent tenants!"
he says.

He's optimistic about the hotel's future, noting the wonderfully quiet neighbourhood and the unusual architectural style of the building itself. When he first arrived he was amazed to discover that the hotel was built in 2005. The hotel certainly looks older, in a slightly quaint way. Unlike other hotels where the rooms tend to be identikit, each room at the Park Inn is built on unique specifications. He says that the support of a renowned international chain can only be beneficial. Generous of spirit – like all the best hotel managers – he looks forward to the day when the Park Inn has a Marriott or Hyatt Regency for company.

A hands-on manager, he sits in at most recruitment interviews. "
Sometimes job applicants cheat and say they speak English better than they actually do. So I do the interviews with HR. They must speak English. They must be sales people. If they cannot communicate well with guests, it's a problem. We are, after all, here to serve people,"
says Dangel.

We look out at Vitosha on a misty late winter's afternoon. The mountain reminds Dangel of home, although, as he says, the Swiss Alps are far, far bigger. Sofia may need a bit more work before it competes with the very best but, to judge from the fine standards upheld at the Park Inn, the proverbial "
mountain"
is well in the process of being climbed.

Interesting post admin