CTO reviewing Hilton Park’s bid for coveted five-star status

A submission by the Hilton Park hotel in Nicosia to become a five-star hotel is currently under review by the technical services of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), a CTO official confirmed on Wednesday.

The CTO head of the hotel sector Marios Chanakas said that the hotel owners will then have to submit the architectural plans to the town planning department for final approval.

“If the file is complete it takes less than a month to get approval,” Chanakas explained. “If not it can take one or two years. A lot of the submissions have missing documents.”

While waiting for the approval the hotel is busy making the required improvements. The Hilton Park, presently a four-star establishment, said it is spending a total of €7 million to make the changes which are expected to be completed in May 2019.

Louis Hotels, the owners, are confident the hotel will then get the extra star.

“We are pleased to announce that at the end of the second renovation phase Hilton Park acquires another star and becomes five star!” Louis Hotels’ CEO Iasonas Perdios told a press conference on Tuesday.

The first phase of the renovation was completed in May 2018, and included the total revamping of 85 rooms and suites.

For phase two, there are plans for a new restaurant, bar, an executive lounge and a presidential suite.

The Hilton Park is renewing its partnership with the Hilton International hotel chain for at least another 10 years.

The legal requirements which distinguish a four-star from a five-star hotel are numerous and include the size of the rooms and other facilities as well as the parking area.

A town hotel like the Hilton Park is required to have one parking for every two bedrooms to be rated five-star, whereas a four-star establishment only needs a parking space for every three rooms. The minimum floor area for a single room in a five-star is 14 square metres and 12 square metres for a four-star hotel.

Five-star hotels are the only establishments where the kitchens not only have to have a confectionary area but also adequate storing areas.

In addition to a hair dressing salon, a shop selling printed material and tobacco they must also have a shop selling folk art.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.