Grand Hotel Continental, the newest five-star hotel in Bucharest opened its door to the public today.

Erected on the site of the old Grand Hotel Broft, the hotel has been reopened after two years of modernization works. “The building is functional since December 2009, and so far, we’ve had an occupancy rate of 36%”, said Radu Enache, owner of Continental Hotels group.

For this year, Enache expects Grand Hotel Continental to generate a turnover of €2.5 million. “We expect a median occupancy rate of 60%, a realistic number considering that many executives of large companies prefer to check in here”, Enache added.

The most expensive room costs €960/night.

The hotel boasts 53 rooms, 6 suites individually decorated in a variety of styles that includes baroque, Louis XV, and facilities such as spa centers with jacuzzi, massage, sauna, beauty treatments, fitness center, as well as six conference rooms. “The hotel furniture only cost us around €1 million”, said the head of Continental Hotels.

To these facilities are added the fine-dining restaurant Concerto, with a nouvelle cuisine menu that offers traditional dishes from Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Turkish and Serbian cuisines and an authentic British style bar, Victoria Club.

Enache said the hotel was close to going under the management of luxury hotel group Kempinski. “We held talks with Kempinski that wanted to takeover the management of the hotel, but dropped the idea citing too few rooms”.

The main target of the new hotel is corporate clients, a segment that is expected to account for 75-80% of occupancy rates.

Continental Hotels group was established in 1991, and was designed for business travel segment.