Reaching for the sky
Port Hotel, a company fully owned by Polish Airports (PPL), is in the advanced planning stages for construction of at least 10 two- and four-star hotels next to all of Poland's major and minor airports over the next five years. Each hotel will contain 100 to 150 rooms. The cost of the investment is between zł.250-300 million.
Port Hotel owns the Courtyard Warsaw International Airport Hotel (Courtyard Warsaw), which has proved very profitable. The company has seen revenues per room increase by 50 percent and profits by 146 percent. Port Hotel sees the same potential at other airports around the country. "We are the example that there is really a need for such hotels," says Iwona Świdek, director of sales and marketing at Courtyard Warsaw.
"We're talking about [building these hotels] now because of [Port Hotel's] recent success with Courtyard," says Alex Kloszewski, head of the hotel department at Colliers International. "I think it really came to their heads about a year ago when they looked at the numbers, they looked at their results and said: 'Wow, we should do this everywhere.'"
Two-star hotels will make up the majority of the new accommodations, while four-star inns will go up around the bigger hubs. "People are always asking us where the nearest budget hotel is," says Port Hotel's president, Witold Ignatowski. "It's necessary to build these hotels for regular people, not just for businessmen."
The growing amount of potential clients also influenced the decision. The number of passengers handled by Polish airports in 2005 jumped 31 percent over 2004, to 11.5 million. Much of the increase is coming from regional airports, which currently don't have hotels nearby. Kraków and Katowice saw passenger numbers grow last year by 95 percent and 87 percent respectively. "These people need a place to stay," says Ignatowski.
The larger regional airports are first on the list to receive their inns. Port Hotel has entered discussions with a company empowered by Katowice International Airport's management - the Upper-Silesia Air Association (GTL) - to build a hotel there. Hotels at the airports in Kraków, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Poznań are also on their way. Warsaw, where a new terminal with a 10-million passenger capacity is under construction, will also get a two-star hotel to go along with its four-star Courtyard. Next will be the smaller airports, such as Szczecin and Łodź.
"If we will not do this, somebody else will - I have no question," said Ignatowski. "Courtyard by Marriot proved to everybody just how good a business this is."
