Sheraton wants to open new hotels in western Romania

American hotel group Starwood Hotels & Resorts wants to open new hotels in Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara, under the Sheraton and Four Points brands, after it opened its first Sheraton hotel in Bucharest this year. The negotiations are just beginning, said Robert Koren, the group’s vice-president, reports local Ziarul Financiar. For the hotel opened in Bucharest, on the site of the former Howard Johnson, the negotiations have lasted two years. The talks take longer because of the banks which offer the financing. “Now everything takes more time than before the crisis,” said Koren. Most customers of the Sheraton hotel in Bucharest are from the United States, but some of them are also from France, Great Britain or Italy. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has officially entered in Romania this year with the Sheraton brand, after signing a franchise contract for at least 20 years with local company Grand Plaza Hotel, which owns the former Howard Johnson hotel in downtown Bucharest. editor@romania-insider.com