{"id":112173,"date":"2025-11-05T08:03:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/grand-hotel-bucharest-strategy-32-cost-reduction-and-repositioning-in-the-luxury-market\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:38:07","slug":"grand-hotel-bucharest-strategy-32-cost-reduction-and-repositioning-in-the-luxury-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/grand-hotel-bucharest-strategy-32-cost-reduction-and-repositioning-in-the-luxury-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Hotel Bucharest strategy: 32% cost reduction and repositioning in the luxury market"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Under the leadership of Salim Touma, appointed General Manager in August 2022, Grand Hotel Bucharest (formerly Intercontinental) has implemented a restructuring strategy that has reduced costs by 32% and reduced staff turnover by 40%. The process aimed at operational optimization without compromising the quality of five-star services and repositioning the hotel on the local and international market through new restaurant concepts and attracting new customer segments. <\/p>\n

The cost reduction strategy focused on eliminating waste and increasing efficiency. A key measure was the transformation of fixed costs into variable costs through flexible labor management. In the banqueting department, for example, the hotel did away with a large number of permanent employees in favor of working with external staffing suppliers, who were only required during events. This approach does not apply, however, in areas with direct and constant interaction with guests, such as restaurants or room housekeeping, where it relies on permanent staff to maintain consistency and guest relations. Another component of the strategy is the annual re-evaluation of contracts with all suppliers through tenders to ensure competitive pricing and high quality. <\/p>\n

In parallel with optimizing costs, the management has invested in modernizing the offer. The Corso restaurant on the ground floor has been completely renovated and re-launched with an Italian theme, while the Sky Lounge & Bar, the former Club Lounge Intercontinental, has reopened on the 21st floor with a menu fusing French and Asian cuisine. By the end of the year, the hotel plans to open Bucharest’s first five-star Romanian restaurant, a boutique concept with around 70 seats, which will reinterpret modern dishes from the country’s historic regions. The long-term vision is to reconnect the hotel with the younger generation. <\/p>\n

The customer profile remained stable in the Romanian segment (20-30%), but saw growth in new markets, with an increase in the number of tourists from South America and Spain, as well as an expansion of the Middle Eastern market, especially from countries such as Oman, as a result of the facilitation of access with Schengen visa for citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council states. <\/p>\n

Salim Touma has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry, having held management positions with groups such as InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Marriott International and Hospitality Management Holdings in the Middle East (Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Dubai, Qatar) and Africa (Ghana). Prior to coming to Romania, he coordinated a 10,000-room temporary accommodation project in Doha for 2022 FIFA World Cup supporters.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Under the leadership of Salim Touma, appointed General Manager in August 2022, Grand Hotel Bucharest (formerly Intercontinental) has implemented a restructuring strategy that has reduced costs by 32% and reduced staff turnover by 40%. The process aimed at operational optimization without compromising the quality of five-star services and repositioning the hotel on the local…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":112154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2859],"tags":[2925],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-112173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stirea-editiei-en","tag-grand-hotel-bucharest-en"],"article_style_override":"","post-style":"","post_via":"","post-top-image":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112201,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112173\/revisions\/112201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112173"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=112173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}