General Manager Fatih Şenuslu, stating that they started the renovation of InterContinental Istanbul in March 2022. He continued, "We began with the exterior facade. The tower and base of the building were renovated within a six-month program. Then, in January of this year, the public areas were closed and renovated, and they were put into operation at the end of April. Of course, the hotel did not close during this process. The lobby layout was changed. Our estimate is that we will start the room renovations in January. Now, sample rooms are being prepared. We will renovate the rooms by closing them four floors at a time. It will take an estimated 3-3,5 years."
Fatih Şenuslu stated that they allocated a budget of 50 million dollars for the comprehensive renovation to be carried out at the facility. He said, "So far, 10 million dollars of this has already been used in the renovation of the lobby and outdoor areas. The rest will be used in the rooms."
He expressed that the concept in the hotel has completely changed, and everything from A to Z has been taken to a whole new dimension with a new design. He added:
"A bar has been added to the lobby. We didn't have a winter garden, so that was added. There were works in the garden section. The stairs were renovated... In short, the lobby was completely recreated from scratch."
In the rooms, we are going for renewal both in terms of technical infrastructure and design. This means that the atmosphere currently felt in the lobby will continue in the rooms as well. The elevators are almost finished. One is done, and within a month, all elevator cabins and doors will be harmonized with the lobby.
"Our guests and business partners really like the changes we made in the hotel. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) also liked the renovation. We are already conducting the renovation process with them. We can say that it is the best lobby among InterContinental hotels in Europe right now."
Fatih Şenuslu explained that the first six months in tourism were a bit challenging due to reasons like earthquakes and elections, but it started to rise with the month of July. He said, "July and August were prety well. September and October also look good. The good part is that forward group reservations have started to come in again. 2024 seems to be better than 2023. We've started to receive good reservations for distant dates."
Announcing that they will reduce the number of normal rooms at the facility and increase the number of suite ones, Fatih Şenuslu shared the following information:
When the entire renovation of the hotel is completed, this will also be reflected in the prices. We are reducing the number of rooms from 390 to 350. We will increase the number of suite rooms. Currently, we have 54 suite rooms, but will increase it to 110. As a result, room prices will also increase significantly.
Our renovation has been proceeding systematically since 2017. General areas, restaurants, our rooftop bar, meeting rooms, and spa area were renovated before the pandemic. We had last reached the lobby. Now, we are continuing with the rooms. We are carrying out the renovation process carefully in a working hotel without disturbing the guests.
We worked with Aslı Arıkan Dayıoğlu, who won the IF Design Awards 2022, for the renovation of the hotel. She is an architect who has worked in various hotels both abroad and in Turkey. She is a very successful architect, and we are very pleased with her."
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