Bogdan Șaitoș (Nordis Hotels) on Nordis Mamaia: the largest 5-star hotel in Central and Eastern Europe

Luxury hospitality in Romania: an emerging market

When you are accustomed to a certain standard of hospitality within that distinctive universe we call the luxury tier of hotel services, your level of expectation often exceeds what the Romanian hotel market has to offer.

This is where Nordis Hotels comes in — the hospitality division of the Nordis real-estate development group — with its new 5-star flagship, Nordis Mamaia, opened in the summer of 2023.

Naturally, you have already travelled a few times through Singapore, Dubai, Bali, the Maldives or Miami, and you know the ways of brands such as Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Hilton, Park Hyatt, St Regis — or you have stayed in boutique hotels or discreet chalets in the Swiss Alps. You know how to tip the valet. You know how a concierge can help you.

The dominant quality that the world's 4-5-6-star hotels offer — whether they belong to established chains or are independent — is the constancy and consistency of quality, regardless of season, regardless of location. Wherever you find yourself, in the Seychelles or in Bangkok, your experience at a Four Seasons or Marriott hotel remains fundamentally the same — seasoned with touches of local culture.

In fact, that is what you are looking for as a luxury guest: that cultural seasoning of the destination and that dominant line of constant quality you can call home when you travel.

The secret of these hotels is not the design. It is not the facilities. It is the quality of the people in the management teams — the psychology of hospitality, passed down vertically from top management across every horizontal level, from the service staff to the administrative offices.

About Bogdan Șaitoș, Manager & Partner at Nordis Hotels

[photo — Bogdan Șaitoș]

One of the central figures in the top management of Nordis Hotels is Bogdan Șaitoș, Manager & Partner.

Bogdan joined the Nordis group in 2019, with 14 years of experience in construction and real-estate development — in particular the big-picture vision required for large-scale projects. Nordis Mamaia is the Nordis group's first hotel project and Bogdan's first hotel project.

Among his first management objectives, Bogdan wanted to build a project team made up of consultants specialising in hospitality, working in synergy from the very earliest stages of design, construction and implementation — and then in the day-to-day operation of the hotel.

What are the current challenges of the project, Bogdan?

[photo — hotel entrance]

The Nordis Mamaia hotel complex is in its final stage of development — interior fit-out and the implementation of complete software solutions. Construction of the hotel is finished; we are now working on the design details.

We are preparing for the pre-opening phase and beginning with a Soft Opening dedicated to internal organisation activities — operating simulations of the closed hotel, without guests, functional tests at different occupancy capacities, the application and refinement of procedures, staff management. A process that takes roughly 3 months for the best results.

The next objective is the Grand Opening and the opening of the hotel to tourists, plus handing over the apartments in the residential buildings to their new owners. Our clients' main aim is to come to the seaside, in the summer season, and connect to the pulse of the holiday for a well-deserved break — Nordis style, at a 5-star level.

What does Nordis Mamaia bring that is new, and how does it fit into the coastal landscape?

I am tempted to say that we are developing an iconic complex, a benchmark for luxury and 5-star service in the Romanian hotel industry — but this promise has to be validated by clients in practice.

The complex's big novelty is the Hotel & Residence concept — both as a business opportunity and as a way of operating. The concept is a first in Romania, yet common worldwide; in Dubai it has been running for many years.

The Nordis Mamaia complex is made up of two hotel buildings and two residential apartment buildings.

The Hotel & Residence concept — an investment with a guaranteed 7% return

Investors can buy hotel rooms, Nordis Hotels takes the rooms back on a lease, and clients obtain a guaranteed financial return of 7% per year relative to the sum invested, through the hotel operation of these rooms.

It is as if you were buying Nordis Hotels Mamaia shares in real-estate form, with a guaranteed annual 7% return-on-investment. We can guarantee this return because we have made multiple financial forecasts, including evaluations and simulations together with Horvath HTL — a multinational company specialising in hotel-return evaluations.

We are in an emerging market, that of luxury hotels, but one with great development potential. Serious investors are looking to diversify their portfolio and consolidate their profits alongside big-business partners — so we offer this opportunity with a long-term return.

What is the design and guest-experience concept?

[video — Nordis Mamaia]

We call it biophilic design — inspired by nature, typical of Nordis projects. We also drew inspiration from other sources, among them certain hotels in Dubai, in order to create a look of our own.

You will find Hollywood Regency influences, Streamline modernist accents and all the high-class finishes required. The design meets the criteria of a 5-star hotel and sets itself apart through the concept it embraces — from the architecture that mimics the waves of the sea, through to the design of the rooms and the facilities.

We could talk at length about the dozens of pleasant experiences throughout the complex. But we also focused on details that prevent unpleasant experiences — first and foremost, the safety of people.

712 hotel entrance doors + over 1,000 interior doors — the Kulttur project

Given the function of the hotel and apart-hotel buildings, it is compulsory to comply with certain standards for fire containment and extinguishing — detection systems, sprinklers, hydrants, plus doors resistant to fire and airtight against smoke for a minimum of 30 minutes.

To supply these special doors we worked alongside studio Kulttur, following thorough market research. We were looking for a technical consultant who could provide integrated services — consultancy, design, choice of technical solution, implementation and warranty — plus major production capacity to deliver:

• 712 hotel entrance doors
• over 1,000 interior doors

The quality of the Lebo Doors products also mattered — with German DNA and all the necessary certifications. These are doors with automatic closing/opening and locks with a Master Key, which can lock and unlock automatically to allow emergency exit.

All the doors in the Nordis complex (residential and hotel) are conceived on the basis of the same standards of fire resistance and smoke tightness — and are supplied and installed by Kulttur.

Technical specifications — Kulttur doors, Nordis Mamaia

Green Building certified construction

When it comes to construction, we complied with the international Green Building standards in every aspect of the development:

• Ventilated façades with mineral wool
• High sound insulation for rest and acoustic comfort
• Full LED lighting
• Thermal plants with efficient output of heat energy
• Green spaces and nature everywhere — to support the biophilic design concept
• Materials chosen for low environmental impact and reduced energy consumption

What can we expect for the future?

[photo — Nordis pools]

With Nordis Hotels Mamaia we are working on several fronts at once. We are developing a large-scale hotel and residential project, with multiple blocks and additional luxury facilities spread over 5 hectares.

Phase 1 — completed

• 2 hotel blocks of 12 floors each
• 5 indoor pools in a shared space
• Spa and wellness areas
• ~95% of the hotel rooms already sold (we estimate 100% before long)
• 620 residential apartments delivered in the first year

Phase 2 — under construction

• 3 residential buildings with almost 1,800 apartments
• Access to all the complex's facilities
• Nordis property management — for investors seeking passive income
• Estimated return of 10% per year + appreciation of over 40% on completion of construction

At the end of the project

• Between 4,000 and 5,000 individual keys
• A community of 5,000 residential units
• 26,000 sqm of private beach
• Integrated hotel services: hospitality, property management, shopping, cinema, restaurants, cafés, spa & wellness, 5 indoor pools — to a 5-star standard

What other projects do you have under way within Nordis Hotels?

[photo — Nordis Sinaia & Nordis Brașov]

In the luxury hotel field there are a few priority aspects — the quality of the services, the quality of the architecture and interior design, plus location, which is a significant advantage.

In parallel with Nordis Mamaia we are developing two Hotel & Residence concepts in the mountains:

• Nordis Sinaia
• Nordis Brașov

Both locations are strategically placed, with spectacular mountain scenery, in the heart of nature. They have a smaller capacity (80-100 rooms) — but Nordis Mamaia remains the benchmark, with many superlatives of quality, including in scale: the largest 5-star hotel in Central and Eastern Europe, with 712 rooms.

After the Grand Opening, Nordis Hotels' market share will reach 50% in the 4-5-star luxury hotel segment in Romania.

Progress in real estate is usually slow, like the walk of a tortoise. But this slow and steady pace is the key to success. Progress comes through great silent achievements, made in small steps — where the seemingly invisible work, behind the visible work, brings everything to light. — Bogdan Șaitoș, Manager & Partner at Nordis Hotels