First of all, Mr. Queitsch, could you give us historical background about the Renaissance hotel and when it was established and about the Marriott hotel?
The Renaissance hotel opened in April 7 years ago, started out as a Penta hotel and then became a Renaissance hotel. Renaissance, the company, was purchased about 2 years ago by Marriott, so we manage now together the Renaissance and the Marriott hotel. The Renaissance has 314 rooms, is a five star hotel and we recently renovated all of our rooms. We have some suites and a club floor, which is the executive floor, we have three restaurants, one mainly steak restaurant -a steak house, an all purpose restaurant with mainly cafes and a very popular Czech restaurant. We have banquet facilities, holding up to 200 people in the ballroom.
What has been the occupancy rate in regard the Renaissance hotel and the Marriott?
The Marriott is new, but at the same time not that new, in May it will be 1 year, so we have been nearly for a year on the market. This hotel traditionally enjoyed very high occupancies, few years ago the Intercontinental and the Renaissance were the only international hotels in town, than came the Radison and now Intercontinental hotel and Marriott obviously. This hotel always enjoyed occupancy in the high seventies, nearly eighties and last year we finished in the upper seventies.
What about the Marriott?
During its first year Marriott was extremely well accepted, a beautiful hotel with interior design that fits very well into the city Prague, itīs a little Biedermaier look. It finished short of 70% occupancies, but for the first year thatīs great.
How do you explain this, because in that area there is a lot of competition and how are you going to face the competition, e.g. since in a few months Four Season and Kempinsky hotels are coming on the market?
This city still has room for the upper market, especially now itīs changing. This city used to be very highly touristic; full of bus tours, flight tours, all prearranged tours. Now you see more and more individual business people, leisure travellers, and the trend is that the business travellers are becoming leisure travellers, too. Anyway this city has so much to offer, especially on the upper market, and I see no reason that even with the Four Seasons coming and the Kempinsky maybe in 2 years this would be too bad. If you have one hotel with about 300 rooms and you still run similar occupancies, that shows you that there is potential. This city is obviously very busy, you see it now, you can hardly walk in the streets, because tourists are all over the place. In winter itīs slowing down a bit, but we still have to work on the off-season, because everything in this city is dramatic - the architecture, the culture, the music and the operas, even in winter itīs not going away and itīs even better sometimes than in summer, so we have to promote it just a little bit harder.
How do you explain that there is no Ministry of Tourism or a Czech Tourism Promotion Authority to co-ordinate the Czech Republic tourism sector? And how is it working; is it done through private initiatives, is it your job to do it?
I have tried very hard. I worked in New York where public private initiatives are very powerful. I think that raising money, taking some initiatives should not be a problem. Here, I think itīs simply traditional. Iīm trying hard to get something on the board. The whole competitiveness of selling still has a different meaning in the Czech Republic. Itīs unfortunate because other countries like Hungary, Poland, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Holland are very strong in their promotion. Here it doesnīt exist. If you ask for a brochure on this country, you need to send a stamped envelope. Itīs getting better, but some people still, even in government, think there are enough tourists in town already. And they are right. Today, if you go down the road, thereīs enough, but then again the year has 365 days and youīve got to pay your rent for all 365 days, so you have to worry about 5-6 months of off season. This is where organization is lacking. We tried to find some solutions within the overall hotel industry, but thatīs obviously very competitive and thus, difficult. We are also trying to work with the city and other organizations, but it is tough.
It has never been a priority for them to develop the tourism sector?
No, because ten years ago, after the Velvet revolution, everybody went crazy coming here; everybody wanted to see the city. No one needed to do anything about attracting tourists; they just had to worry about handling them. And, if fact, they are still in this handling stage. Other countries are spending a lot of time, effort, and money on promoting their cities worldwide. This means that it is getting more and more competitive. I think the IMF Summit will help. It brings people together. It has to be thoroughly organized. Parties, meetings, transportation all have to be coordinated in order for it to go smoothly. Otherwise it could be a potential disaster. You have airlines, cities, government, finance department, hotels, taxis etc.-everyone has to contribute to the organization. So that builds some synergy, some understanding, some talking. People might think that we could do this afterwards also. I think this will unite some parties.
Also one of the subjects at the moment is the entering of the Republic into the EU. Itīs expected in 2003, and it would mean a lot of businessmen coming in. Do you think that the Czech republic is going to join the EU in 2003?
Iīm very optimistic about it. Thereīs a lot of talks , every country joining EU faces such a huge changes and this new world is struggling somewhere, you always have some areas, where you are better and some where you are weaker, but at the end of the day I think the pieces will fall together and that we will be joining.
| Donīt you think that 2003 is too early? Maybe 2006 would be better, or even 2007?
I worry about my sector, I worry about business people, we have many consultants, a lot of foreign business people, who want to set up business here and they are very enthusiastic. There are many advantages in this country, there is definitely more upsides to joining sooner than later, the upsides outweigh the negatives.
For two years there has been a recession , it seems now that the economy is recovering. How do you describe the foreign investment climate in the country? At the beginning of the year? Do you feel there is a new restart ?
Itīs not a restart, for a while a lot of things were dragging with a lot of uncertainty. I think there is more and more confidence now about this uncertainty, nothing is ever put sure when you invest or when you go into some new project or venture , there is no guarantee for nothing. But there is always some confidence, you try to eliminate the unknown. The unknown becomes more clear and some good examples show the way, people get confident. Any new venture or business you build on your own confidence is never a sure deal.
More precisely, concerning the Marriott Hotel, what are the new things you have brought to the sector? What are you offering to your customers?
First of all, we are focussing on the marketing. The Renaissance Hotel is working with the Marriott and it is dramatic. Between the two hotels, we have huge convention facilities, huge meetings facilities, and together we have over 600 guest rooms. It is a different playing field when you have 300 rooms or 2 times 300 rooms. We have 3 ballrooms now; 2 at the Marriott and 1 here at the Renaissance. We have smaller bedrooms here which means that we can attack completely different markets at the same time. In a five star environment, very close walking distance to the center of the city; this is a classic, large, luxury product, that can be marketed simultaneously. This did not exist before, and it has only been made possible because of our cooperation with one another.
Talking about IMF summit in September, are you already fully booked, what are going to be the special events you are organising?
Well IMF organises its own show, but there are certain banks who do some events, some are routines, some are new and there is some excitement right now with the IMF going on by itself. We have been fully booked for a long time, we receive calls every day from people, from the highest German personalities; from all kinds of people. It will be a testing period for the city, I think it will be good. There is always a danger that something might go wrong, but we are trying to eliminate any unknown, we have good security and good organisation. We are well prepared for it. The city is also prepared, thatīs a good thing.
We also came to interview you as a businessman, could you tell us something about your professional experience by talking a little bit more about your experience in the Czech republic?
Itīs one of the greatest places to be in, Iīve been in places like New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg. I think this city has tremendously lot to offer, we love to live here, this is a great city to live in. To work it is another story, itīs not as easy as elsewhere.
This is my first Eastern European assignment. Every country has its ups and downs. We have very sophisticated, well educated, more sales oriented, more common sense initiative, rich people, you have more learning and order taking and so on. Now in this country we are trying to see where are we, where do we fit. This country is at an interesting stage right now. With salaries, job conditions, business, it adds little spices to your daily job.
How long do you think you will stay here?
I donīt know, I like it a lot. We usually have 3 to 4 years.
What has been the most successful achievement?
The upgrading of this hotel, we are very happy about that. We made some nice changes. The guestrooms have a high occupancy and we are one of the cleanest hotel and one of the guest-friendliest hotels of the chain. Within the Renaissance system, which makes 180 hotels; thatīs dramatic in a country like this. To get the achievements you compare yourself with other countries. To open this baby, the Marriott and to be as successful as it is in the first year - last year we had a prime ministersī conference here, 16 prime ministers at the same time and thatīs after 5 month of operation. That shows confidence, we work close with the government, we got that business from another hotel, but this hotel was really well excepted, we have very high delegations in there, we have great guests and good business people. Itīs really a place where you feel good. It is the same here.
Iīm very proud of it.
What would be your final message to the readers?
Come to Prague as often as you want. My message is that most people realise I want to visit Prague and they donīt take enough time to really explore the city. This city is so powerful and rich on culture, history, music, and even on business opportunities. There is a huge potential for everybody to come here and itīs at a good price. Prague is still very affordable in Europe and itīs very beautiful. I think itīs one of the top cities in the world and one should see that - day and night, 24hours. |
