The Crowne Plaza global brand opened its first hotel in Bulgaria

The international chain of premium business hotels - Crowne Plaza - opened its first hotel in Bulgaria. The property is located on the site of the former Holiday Inn in the Sofia district of Mladost 4 next to the Business Park. Crowne Plaza Sofia opened its doors after nearly two years of major renovation of the building.

On August 1, the 5-star Crowne Plaza Sofia opened its doors to guests. An official grand opening of the hotel is planned for September when our impressive Sky Bar will also be ready," the hotel announced to Economic.bg.

Rebranding of the hotel

The rebranding plans date back as early as 2020, following the change of ownership of the hotel property. At the time, Videolux Holding, the owner of the Technopolis and Praktiker home appliances stores and the Holiday Park shopping complexes - bought the Holiday Inn hotel in Sofia.

The global chain Crowne Plaza is part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts group. It is one of the largest in the world with 19 hotel brands.

InterContinental in Sofia and Holiday Inn in Plovdiv are other properties of the group present in Bulgaria; plus, Holiday Inn Express is about to open near Sofia Airport.

After the acquisition of the Holiday Inn hotel by the Bulgarian company, the company wanted to create a high-quality product that would provide a unique-for-the-country service.

Meanwhile, there was a process of positioning the 19 brands of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) chain, and it turned out that Holiday Inn Sofia was the only 5-star hotel in this brand category - the remaining 1200 hotels worldwide are 3- and 4-star, as Holiday Inn falls under the IHG Essentials Collection.

This is how the idea of ​​rebranding was born - the Crowne Plaza brand, part of the IHG Premium Collection, fully corresponded to our vision for the future of the hotel", the management of the Crowne Plaza in Sofia specifies.

The actual renovation of the hotel began in October 2022. The initially planned refreshment of the interior turned into a complete makeover of the entire building.

The exact investment in the rebranding has not been disclosed, but in Crowne Plaza's words it is "spectacular".

The new hotel concept

The rebranded hotel has solar panel installation, an energy-efficient VRF air conditioning system, water-saving showers, digital Do Not Disturb signs, wooden access cards, and an EV charging station.

Our hotel continues to be the ambassador of IHG in Bulgaria, at the same time we are a pilot hotel for the chain in many ways - not only are we the first hotel of the brand in the country, but we are also the first hotel in the world to wear the new logo of Crowne Plaza proudly”.

The management specifies that despite the change of ownership, the entire Holiday Inn Sofia team of employees has been retained.

Several additional spaces have been added to the hotel, including the Sky Bar, which is due to be completed in early autumn.

The hotel also has a main restaurant, a designer restaurant, a spa center and a conference hall. There is also a dedicated Club Lounge - a place for rest, work or breakfast.

As hoteliers, we can be proud and satisfied with the continuing entry of more and more international hotel brands in Bulgaria. These also attract loyal guests from all over the world - which is an advantage not only for hotel occupancy but also for tourism in Bulgaria as a whole," says Crowne Plaza management.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov