Owners and CEOs of Mellow Mood Group were selected again among the 50 most influential people in the Hungarian tourism sector

2015-01-02

The inseparable and continuously successful duo from the tourism sector are working on their new big project, shortly they will breath 5-star life into the Párizsi Udvar. On a yearly basis they achieve as much guest nights in their hotels as a small town and they employ more than 700 people.

„It is good to see that Budapest has gone through a quality change. We would also like to contribute to it and we trust in the further growth.”

For Mellow Mood Group 2014 was about the growth and stabilization, and moreover about planning and preparing for the new development.

As Sameer Hamdan and Zuhair Awad explained, they would like to „send a message to the city” that they will restore another emblematic building to its original beauty and open it up to the capital: on 31st December 2016 they will open the Párizsi Udvar with a monumental event. The building, probably named as Budapest Treasure will function as a 120-rooms luxury hotel with conference room, elegant 600 m2 suite on the top, a bar on the top floor with breath-taking view to the Buda side and on the ground floor and first floor with cafés, restaurants and shops, and with contemporary interior mood.

The two hard-handed hotel chain owners promised other surprises as well: if everything goes as they planned a 4-star superior hotel is going to be opened in the heart of the 5th district with Budapest’s largest conference capacity and 300 rooms, part of the Fashion or the Congress Hotels brand. All expected services of a 4-star hotel will be offered, including Spa facilities, cafés and shops.

Furthermore to strengthen their international presence they are in negotiation about the opening of a 4-star downtown hotel in Prague, so as to it the Budapest-Vienna-Prague triangle will be made within the hotel group.

There was a significant boom in their centrally located hotels in 2014, which partly depended on the general boom of the city’s tourism and infrastructural development of the 5th district – and certainly depended on their proactive sales and excellent location. Their proficiency is justified by the fact that in 2014 the number of their guest nights increased by more than 10%.  They think that the most important thing was that they managed to financially stabilize the company’s operations. In order to reach the finance, marketing and sales were centralized and they plan similar steps in the operation. But equally important is the young, professional team brought up by the hotel group and for whom they ensured challenge and career opportunities.

It is new in the company portfolio that from 2015 they will think twice about development and operation of not self-owned hotels and not only in Budapest: time arrived to enter the rural market.

Sameer Hamdan and Zuhair Awad start their year optimistic. They believe that Budapest has begun to occupy its worthy place on the international tourism palette which is partly due to the Eastern opening. This not only attracted Middle Eastern tourists, but also investors from that region. As they also have several negotiations abroad, indirectly they build the country’s image.

The two tourism professionals are strict and consistent bosses, and hard, but correct negotiating partners. Their private life is not shown to the public, buta s they previously mentioned, Sameer Hamdan likes travelling, reading and watching films while Zuhair Awad is the fan of the Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Hévíz.