The new High Tatras Kempinski hotel is open (source: TASR)
AFTER four years of extensive reconstruction, the Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras, the first hotel in Slovakia bearing the Kempinski hotel brand, opened its doors to guests earlier in May. The luxurious facility aims to provide services to a demanding clientele, the TASR newswire wrote.
The extensive refurbishing of the almost 100-year old spa facility in the High Tatras started in 2005 and the fact that it is a historical building located in a highly-protected nature area on the shores of the Štrbské Pleso mountain lake made it an even more demanding project. J&T Real Estate was the investor in the reconstruction, spending €42 million. The hotel will operate in trial operations until the end of June.
The hotel consists of three buildings offering 98 rooms and suites for almost 200 guests, with both a presidential suite and a honeymoon suite. Apart from a wellness centre, a restaurant, and a wine cellar there are also two conference rooms.
Miriam Lackovičová, sales director of the Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras expects that the hotel will particularly attract individual tourists from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.
“We believe that the current economic and financial crisis will not influence travelling by our target group and will not impact our occupancy rate,” she told TASR.
The hotel’s kitchen personnel will be international. The chief chef is German, his deputy is of Greek origin and a Bulgarian native supervises the creation of sweets.
The hotel staff numbers over 80 people, mostly locals, and the plan is to increase the staff to 110.
The facility kept a number of its previous elements and spaces, for example its original staircases, fragments of flooring, lighting, the restaurant and the reading room. The hotel now consists of three buildings – Hviezdoslav, Jánošík and Kriváň – joined by an underground corridor.
The Kempinski group plans its second project in Slovakia's capital. Kempinski River Park hotel, to be located in the River Park development on the Danube bank, will have 231 guest rooms and suites, wellness and spa area and a pool. Opening is planed for autumn 2009.
