Known Why Legendary Crowne Plaza Hotel In Minsk Closed Down

Employees of the hotel revealed the details.

This week the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the centre of Minsk announced its closure. Neither the date nor the reasons were given. Employees were told that the closure was due to technical problems. It is not known whether the hotel will reopen.

A former employee of the hotel, who worked there until 20 November this year, told Office Life.

- Our management mentioned the date of possible reopening of the hotel - in six months. However, we do not know if such plans exist. There is no certainty at the moment," the former employee told Office Life.

Incidentally, the hotel was closed in February 2022. The reason given at the time was technical problems. In September that year, the Crowne Plaza began to welcome guests again.

This time, the hotel's casino was out of order, but the spa continued to operate.

Several dozen employees were laid off as a result of the closure, including maids, cooks and back-office specialists.

Insiders say a number of factors could have led to the closure. After 15 years of operation, the Crowne Plaza had become outdated and required modernisation and additional investment.

Anatoly Akantinov, General Director of the Centre for Strategic Development Marketing Systems, noted that in general a significant part of the hotel's assets are relatively small rooms. He says that rooms in modern hotels tend to be larger, which means they have competition. And although the Crowne Plaza kept the price of accommodation at an average level, and sometimes even lower, this did not always work.

According to the interviewee, tourists from Western Europe and Turkey often stayed at the hotel. The influx of the former has decreased. Thanks to international sporting events at the Dynamo stadium, the hotel was also popular with athletes. Now there are fewer such guests.

- The casino also played an important role. Thanks to it, tourists also stayed at the hotel. Competition between casinos has increased both in Minsk and in Russia as a whole. It has become profitable to fly to Sochi for this purpose," says the expert.

Another interlocutor of Office Life recalls that in 2017 there were reports that Minsk Princess Hotel (owner of the Crowne Plaza hotel building) had serious debts to the budget, banks and partners. But the shareholders, led by Turkish millionaire Sudi Ozkan, managed to get out of it.

The hotel's financial situation deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic. The uncertain market situation caused by the sanctions did not inspire confidence. Last year, for example, the British InterContinental Hotel, which owns the rights to the Crowne Plaza hotels, announced that it would cease operations in Russia "in line with the evolving UK, US and EU sanctions and the ongoing and increasing challenges of operating there". According to MICE&more magazine, the Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC hotel ceased to be part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts chain on 1 July 2022. It continued to operate as a hotel within the Moscow International Trade Centre.

Experts in the Belarusian hotel market believe that the owners of the Crowne Plaza in Minsk may be able to overcome the difficulties this time. They see the sale of the hotel or the possibility of its revival through investment as options for solving the problems.