Mellow Mood Group’s accommodation portfolio, currently comprising around 900 hotel rooms, 450 year-round hostel beds and 1100 seasonal hostel beds, is looking to double within the next year and a half – and not only within Hungary.
Budapest’s first life-style hotel
The five-star Buddha-Bar Hotel Budapest Klotild Palace, the group’s first luxury hotel, is set to open in Vaci Street at the end of 2009, said Jo Gowie, hotel development director. The uniquely designed 102-room hotel (including 39 suites), offering a wide range of services, is designed in a unique Asian eclectic-colonial style, originally inspired by the Buddha-Bar concept. It will be the first lifestyle hotel in Budapest, which, besides spoiling the tourists, also wants to entertain the locals. The hotel restaurant is located on two floors, using elements of the same brand name. An exclusive restaurant, with an elegant bar upstairs, with live music and a DJ entertaining you for a relaxing break.
The Buddha Bar’s F&B concept also includes the Siddharta Café, which also serves as a breakfast room, and the exclusive Buddha Club under the top-level glass roof, which can be a place for luxury private parties. The first floor has three sectional halls, on the 1st floor there is a multifunctional banquet hall and a 220 square meter spa area.
Another four-star, “Fashion Hotels” brand will launch next year. Located on Nádor Street near the Basilica, Alta Moda Hotel has 114 large living areas in four room types (superior, deluxe, junior suite, suite), including 4 function rooms, a business center, bar, spa, street-trendy restaurant and underground parking is also available here. Jo Gowie says the four-star superior Alta Moda is based on superb location, spacious dimensions and services, and trendy design. Two more hotel developments have been launched under this brand, but both will provide a different four-star experience and design. One 80-room house on the corner of Váci and Pesti Barnabás streets and the other 70-room house on Váci street 83 will open in 2009-2010. Both hotels will have a sectional conference room and a business corner with business travelers in mind.
Conference hotel at the fair center.
Alongside the Budapest International Fair Center, the re-development of the Expo Congress Hotel has begun. The former three-star house will be rebuilt in 2009 as a 160-room, four-star conference and business hotel under the “Congress Hotels” brand, with a focus on business travelers and exhibitors. On the first floor, for example, there is a conference center, and on the top floor there will be additional meeting rooms, where one can refresh at the fitness and spa section after tiring meetings or exhibitions. Selling the house is unlikely to be a major concern, as the neighboring fairgrounds and partners from nearby businesses are big guest groups.
They are also expanding abroad
In Vienna, close to the Naschmarkt, 10 minutes from the Opera, an old building is being converted into a 4-star, 52-room hotel, operated by the Mellow Mood Group. There is a breakfast bar, a banquet hall for 20-25 people. The plans are made by an Austrian-Hungarian architect’s office, once the permits have been obtained, construction can begin and the house is expected to welcome guests in 2009. A local specialist will be called upon to lead it. By the way, this project will be Mellow Mood’s first, but hopefully not the only, cross-border development. The company would open additional hotels in the region, primarily in capitals and major rural centers. They are also constantly analyzing domestic opportunities and are keen to take over existing hotels. Their dedicated marketing and sales team, a solid IT background, and the conscious use of purchasing synergies also helps bring their homes to market. Mellow Mood is not afraid that the current hotel construction fever will endanger its position.
Ágnes Horváth
Source: Tourism Panorama
