Marriott Enter Moscow Market with Opening of Grand Hotel

The latest addition to Moscow's growing top class hotel sector came on line with the opening of the multi-million dollar Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel on Tverskaya ulitsa.

The five-star hotel, located on one of Moscow's most prestigious streets opened for business on 25th August and is particularly significant as Marriot's first venture into the unchartered waters of Russian market. "Marriot's international strategic growth plan is to be present in all of the major capitals of the world and being represented in Moscow is part of that plan", said June Farrell at Marriot's US headquarters.

"We only began our international growth programme in earnest in 1991 and prior to (before) that we only had 16 hotels outside the US. Today, we have an international hotel portfolio (зд. network) of 200 hotels and the timing of our entry into Russia has simply been a factor of finding the right opportunity," she said.

The nine floor hotel will offer 392 deluxe rooms including 24 suites as well as restaurants and bars, indoor swimming pool, health club and a business centre. Rooms are expected to range from as low as USD 300 per night up to USD 1,400 for the presidential suite.

The hotel should considerably enliven a Moscow hotel sector that has already undergone facelift in the last five years. As well as the expensive refurbish merits given to some of the Russian capital's older establishments such as the Metropol and the National, other new developments in recent years have included the Palace, the Tverskaya, the Sofitel and the Novotel in a sector that is becoming increasingly competitive. Additionally, it would probably not be Marriot's last venture on Russian market.

"Once having established a beachhead in the capital city of a country, we look for opportunities in other cities and business centres in the country, airport locations as well as resorts in established destinations," said Farrell.

Already, it is rumoured that Marriott, which is the franchise partner on the Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel, is involved in a hotel project in Nizhny Novgorod although Marriot representatives were not ready to confirm this.

Other firms involved in the Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel include the Interstate Hotels Corporation, which holds the management contract, and Mospromstroy, the hotel contractor.

M.O'Rourke

Комментарии unchartered waters – зд. «целина», неизвестность;

in earnest = seriously, concretely;

facelift = change;

refurbishment = overhauling (капремонт);

beachhead – плацдарм;

franchise – франчайзинг (предоставление товарного знака и «ноу-хау»).

Дата добавления: 2015-08-21