Fire in their bellies

Around 160 people turned up on the Thursday morning, paying little heed to the political machinations in Britain, but ready to listen attentively to the first panel, moderated by Alex Kloszewski, the managing partner of Hotel Professionals, on the topic of the consolidation on the market. In his opinion, 5,000 new branded hotel guest rooms are needed in Poland each year for the next ten years, but only half that amount was delivered to the market last year. The panellists included Miguel Martins, Intercontinental Hotels’ development dircetor for Poland, Marybelle Arnett, the vice-president for development in the CEE region for Hilton, Markus Lehnert, the regional vice-president for hotel development of Marriott International, and Adam Konieczny, the development director for Eastern Europe at Louvre Group Hotels. Much of the talk was dominated by a discussion on the concept of soft brands, which provide hotels with the organisation of the larger chains but allow for more individua