You can use your mobile to open your room and order a massage. We are betting on technology, says the co-owner of Orea Hotels Forbes

A management contract can be an advantageous solution for some owners. Thanks to it, they will not only get a reservation system with many hundreds of thousands of existing clients, but also savings on inputs, because of course there is a difference in the price of the products when purchasing for one hotel or twenty.

Another great advantage can be valuable know-how in the case of reconstruction, renovation and opening of new operations or the trust of banking institutions in the case of granting loans.

You are also preparing a new hotel in the Gabriel Loci building in the former monastery of St. Gabriel in Smíchov. How does this project look so far? Although it is not located in the very center of the city, it is an amazing location, you can walk through the park and reach the Castle. We realize that the reconstruction will be very expensive and lengthy. When you build a hotel on a green field, it has a clearly set business model in an Excel spreadsheet and you know with a certain degree of risk when it will start making money.

But it doesn't work in this case. This project will require a lot more work, money and creativity to find a model that can work. And not only from a monument and technical-building point of view, but also from an economic and investor point of view, so that we can realize it at all.

How much money and time will it take? As for the investment, I don't want to say a specific number, because every time something falls, it turns out that it is still not enough. We would like to obtain a zoning decision by 2023. But of course it may take longer.

If we manage to start building in the next four to five years, we will be happy. If it succeeds, it will be much more than just building "another" hotel. It is not only a great challenge and adventure for us, but also fun.

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Until then, will Gabriel Loci continue to function as a cultural space? The building was terribly neglected, so from the beginning we didn't even know if we could hold anything there. But after some partial emergency repairs, it turned out that it could work.

Large cultural events such as Designblok and Fashion Week, theater performances and concerts took place there. The spaces are also used by artists as their studios. And if everything goes as it is, there is no reason to change anything until the reconstruction.

Another interesting project is Orea Place. What are your plans for it? It is a concept of serviced apartments for short-term and long-term rentals. It's an alternative to Airbnb, but more user-friendly in many ways. You have a butler on site, whom you can contact at any time, you are assured of a certain standard and the possibility of regular cleaning.

And if something needs to be resolved quickly, you don't have to negotiate with the owners remotely. We opened the first Orea Place in Senovážna Street in Prague and are preparing another one.

Where specifically? In addition to Prague, we are considering Orea Place in Mariánské Lázně, but this model could also work well in Brno, Šumava or the Giant Mountains. However, the product must always be adapted to the location.

By the way, serviced apartments were a huge success in the United States at the time of closed hotels. For me, it's definitely a product worth developing. And over time, we may be able to run OreaPlace for other owners as well.

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Offices are also part of your portfolio. How much did the pandemic affect them? The impact was not as severe as for hotels. In addition, the slump came a little later than in accommodation services, so luckily it was over in time. But the office market has changed significantly. Companies want shorter leases, to be able to expand or reduce capacity. They don't want to commit to anything for a long time and demand flexibility. And we are trying to adapt to that now.

Are your coworking activities related to this? We have the Mo-Cha project, which we originally started in Brno. The Moravian Cottage, hence Mo-Cha, is a space right next to our Orea Congress Hotel Brno. And the concept of shared workplaces and offices together with spaces for various business, social and training events in line with the offer and function of the hotel next door made sense for its use.

We are currently preparing a similar industrial-style project on Wenceslas Square. Thanks to the fact that it is a flexible serviced office, we are meeting the changing demand on the office market.

When should the project on Wenceslas Square be finished? We are currently waiting for perhaps the last administrative step and we hope that construction will start soon. Implementation should take less than a year.

How do you manage to complete new projects in these uncertain times, when the prices of construction work and materials are rising sharply? Unfortunately, the increase in prices is quite dramatic and it is challenging. Construction companies lack material and often do not even know if they will be able to deliver it in a given time. And just like everyone else, they are troubled by the lack of staff.

For both the construction industry and the accommodation and hospitality sector, it would be great if the employment of foreigners was simplified administratively. With almost zero unemployment, positions in similar fields are very difficult to fill.

Does technology help you in any way with the lack of people? All the newly reconstructed projects are already prepared in such a way that technology makes the stay with us as easy as possible for customers. After installation, you can open the door with your phone, order a massage via the app or solve any other request. On the one hand, it is user-friendly for the guest, and on the other hand, it also saves the time of the staff, who can devote themselves all the more to the guests in cases that really require it.

In addition to that, we have so far tried the use of robots in operation rather for revival. At the Pyramida hotel, for example, we had the humanoid Pepper, who advised guests on how to find their way around the hotel and offered them tourist advice, while at the Horizont Resort, the serving robot takes away the dishes.

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In addition to the Czech Republic, you also operate abroad. What kind of projects do you have there? We have long-term activities in the United States. At the end of 2012, we bought a stake in the company Gencom Group, through which we entered a whole range of hotel projects in the USA, the Caribbean, Costa Rica or Bermuda.

Mostly, again, star hotels run by chains such as Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons or Rosewood. In addition, we are preparing our own development projects in the USA and at the same time investing in pre-residential housing in priority locations in Florida and Colorado.

What are your plans for the future? As part of a joint venture with the Gencom Group, we are part of a giant hotel and residential project in Costa Rica with the Four Seasons, Andaz by Hyatt hotels and the newly started construction of the six-star Ritz-Carlton.

We are also participating in the planned renovation of the Fairmont Hotel in Bermuda, the largest convention hotel in the entire Caribbean. These are projects in top locations, and the opportunity to "be there" is certainly exciting and, above all, educational.

The projects that we solve and prepare in the Czech Republic as part of the Orea and Cimex teams are perhaps a little smaller in size, but certainly no less interesting and attractive both in terms of number and variety. If the situation stabilizes, we are also looking at other countries such as Austria or Croatia.

And because after more than thirty years since the founding of Cimex, we already know that the most important thing is a motivated team of co-workers, so that is probably our main plan for the future. To be around people who enjoy it, are curious, are constantly learning, and most of all who want to. Then he can handle anything and anywhere.