Do Belgrade hotels provide service with a smile?
As Belgrade attracts growing numbers of tourists and business travellers, the capital’s hotels and service industries are stepping up their game.
Tourists attracted by a creative wave that is sweeping the city’s cosmopolitan design districts are part of a renaissance that has tourist chiefs buzzing, while foreign investment is attracting increasing numbers of business travellers to Belgrade.
As visitor figures rise, the call on hotel beds to suit all budgets can only increase.
International luxury hotels are opening in the city, such as the waterside Radisson Blu Old Mill and the delayed new Marriott beside the National Theatre, to satisfy the growth in business and high-end travellers.
Belgrade’s design hotels deliver service with a smile
Home grown hotels like Jugoslavija and Moskva have invested greatly in much-needed renovations and updated interior design. Even the tired InterContinental was reborn as part of the Crowne Plaza group in 2013.
To survive in such a climate, independents and design hotels, which can come with a designer price tag, must excel by offering what neither chain hotels nor private rental apartments are able to provide.
Modern travellers want more than the beige rooms and generic breakfast buffets served up by large chain hotels. Young business people and tourists on a weekend break have rejected identikit decoration in favour of independent hotels that offer a taste of their surroundings.
One Belgrade hotel that has capitalised on this hunger for something more than a bed for the night is the MK Group’s 88 Rooms Hotel Hotel. This medium-sized hotel on Takovska is punching well above its weight.
More than contemporary styling & a 360-degree roof terrace
Of course, 88 Rooms has all of the attributes of a fine designer hotel. But it is not the contemporary styling, spacious rooms, good business facilities or even the bright and cheerful roof terrace with 360-degree views of the Belgrade skyline that set this hotel head and shoulders above the crowd.
Taking its lead from the MK Group’s flagship properties at the prestigious MK Mountain Resort on Kapaonik, 88 Rooms prioritises high standards of hospitality to deliver a home from home for modern travellers.
Key to its success is the warm-hearted, natural and unobtrusive approach to service that is embodied by the friendly team of young professionals who treat every guest like an old friend.
The hotel employs creative young people and then invests in staff training that brings out the best in these people without suppressing what made them so attractive in the first place.
Young Belgrade team wins TripAdvisor award
As well as proving popular with repeat visitors, such a commitment to customer care has contributed to the hotel winning the prestigious ‘Travellers Choice Award’ as the most popular hotel in Serbia, on TripAdvisor. Based on reviews, special credit was given to ‘exceptional service’ and reasonable prices at 88 Rooms.
Of course, 88 Rooms is just one modern hotel in Belgrade and the city offers a growing number of affordable short-stay rentals via websites and apps such as AirBnB.
But from a warm greeting on arrival at the hotel, to being waved off in the street on my departure, my recent stay at 88 Rooms was a highlight of my visit to Belgrade.
This hotel provided me with far more than a comfortable bed for the night. So much so, I look forward to my return. It will be like visiting old friends.
No comments yet.
Be first to leave your comment!