It was a hard winter for Romania, with heavy snows, and storms that crippled homes and businesses all over the country. But the most sorrowful state of affairs lies along the Romanian coast, where most seaside resorts offer a desolate landscape full of debris
Just three weeks before Easter and the beginning of the tourist season, the beaches are still dirty, and most hotels are in dire need of repairs. For tourists who insist in spending their first spring holiday at the seaside, there will be some 4 and 5 star hotels opened in Mamaia and Mangalia, with prices ranging from 200 to 500 RON ($60 -$150 USD). But even so, the prices are about 20% higher than prices practiced in Bulgaria, and they are not all-inclusive.
The main hurdle for Romanian hotels to align to prices practiced in other countries is the VAT: 24% in Romania versus 9% in Bulgaria. Even so, reducing the prices and improving customer service could help hotels become more attractive with foreign tourists who refuse to pay the same prices paid by Romanian tourists for a room that is not comparable in price and quality with hotel rooms in other countries.
Instead aligning prices and services to other East European countries, Romanian hoteliers prefer to maintain fees that don’t attract tourists and cause them a greater financial loss. Add to this the low quality of the customer service practiced by most seaside hotels in Romania, and you get a full picture.
This is not to say that hotels on the Romanian littoral are deserted. Somehow Romanian tourists are willing to pay whatever it takes for a bit of seaside fun. Although there are still decent hotels to welcome and accommodate tourists, most hotels are old, moldy and almost run down. A recent report by PROTV (in Romanian) shows a clear picture of what hotels have to deal with before the tourist season. You don’t need to understand the language to shudder at the sight of these venues:
Hotelierii de pe litoral se pregatesc pentru sarbatorile de Pasti: au preturi cu 20% mai mari decat bulgarii VIDEO pe www.incont.ro
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