Ambasador Hotel's profit up

Ambasador Hotel in downtown Bucharest logged 8% nine-month turnover growth in euros from the same time last year to 1.3 million euros. It expects full-year turnover to reach about 2 million euros. Hotel officials, however, say the hotel’s efficiency has been decreasing every year. “Although things look pretty much the same in comparable figures, the efficiency indicators have been going down over the last three years, particularly because of the uncontrolled increase in the utility costs, taxes and duties, supplies and in the VAT levied on the revenues in foreign currency, considering we chose not to raise prices and even pushed them down at times as part of our tariff policy,” says, George Turna, the general manager of the hotel. Ambasador logged 1.4 million euro turnover last year. The profit made by the hotel in the first nine months of the year amounted to $390,000 compared with $270,000 for the entire 2002. This year seems to be a turning point for the hotel’s profitability, which followed a downward trend between 2000 and 2002, from the nearly $1 million in 2000 to $550,000 in 2001 and $270,000 in 2002. ZF