“We are offering three defining
things in our job: clean, safe and high-quality services”
Interview with Mihai Marcel,
Director of the Astoria Complex within CFR – SA
Railway
Journal: The Astoria Complex offers a relatively large amount of hotel and boarding
services. Can you make a general presentation of the unit you are leading?
Mihai Marcel: The
Astoria complex is made up of several sub-units, with three major areas of activity:
boarding, food and retail sales.
The boarding sector is represented first
of all by the Astoria Hotel, with a two-star rating, with 314 places and the following
structure: seven apartments, 23 single rooms and 168 double rooms. The comfort we are
offering to our clientele meets international tourism norms for the two-star category;
following the visits we hosted from various control institutions, Astoria has been found
to have one of the finest two-star hotels in Bucharest. 
Standard equipment in the rooms are: satellite TV, radio,
international telephone, and bathroom. At the first and second floors, where single-bed
apartments and rooms are located, comfort is completed with ventilation, air conditioning
and refrigerating equipment.
The booking system, hotel management and billing are computerised, as it is normal in a
modern hotel. About the Hotel Astoria, I would like to note that annual occupation degree
is 65%, an optimal rate.
Boarding services are completed with public food services: at the ground floor of the
hotel is a first-category restaurant, with 80 seats, a 20-seat day bar, an 80-seat
brasserie, and in the warm period of the year there is a 50-seat summer terrace.
Products offered in the public food
sector in the Astoria Complex 
are
especially traditional Romanian culinary makes, such as mititei, stomach soup, stuffed
cabbage, etc. We also have our own, delicious product, “Turnedo a la Astoria” (thin
pastry rolled up with chicken breast, pressed ham, pork file and spinach broth). We also
serve international products, an international bar and traditional Romanian drinks (marque
wines, palinca, etc.).
R.J.:
Aside from the hotel, you manage the Snagov Tourist Complex. What can you tell us of this
location, which probably will be in high demand this summer?
M.M.:
The Snagov Tourist 
Complex
is located in the region of the Snagov village, on the banks of the lake carrying the same
name. The distance between Bucharest and the complex gates is almost 50 km, which makes it
very accessible, especially to the people of Bucharest. A great attraction to the city
dwellers, which individualises this place, is the special microclimate it offers: oaks,
fir trees, lawns, which are in abundance across the base, create the impression of a
mountain resort, and there are boat or steamboat rides on the lake.
We offer a wide range of services here: sports – tennis, volleyball and basketball
courts, ping-ping tables, nautical – boat rentals, and a swimming pool near the lake. We
have also arranged two playgrounds for the children, as well as special barbecue sites.
R.J.:
What accommodations are available to the travellers coming to Snagov?
M.M.: 
Those who come have a wide range of
lodging options. We have a three-star mini-hotel with 18 places, a three-star villa with 8
places, and two other one-star villas, each with 15 places; lodging sites rated with three
stars have been renewed last year. We also have a camping site and around 100 sites for
tents, and soon we are planning to install wooden cabins.
The public food sector includes a first-category restaurant with 150 seats, which
following renovation works last year was fitted with a ventilation and air conditioning
system and heat repellent window. The entire complex is heated by our two modern heating
stations.
The open-air terrace, with a capacity in excess of 250 seats, the rustic restaurant
(“Sura”) and the three retail kiosks satisfy all customers’ needs; a product in
great demand is catfish stew.
R.J.:
What are your future projects?
M.M.: We
are planning to build a multi-purpose hall, near the central pavilion of the complex. This
hall will have approximately 150 seats, and will be fitted with modern equipment:
audio-video, projection, simultaneous translation, etc. We are confident that this will
increase the attractiveness of the base among the tourists. In fact, another villa, today
in a state of conservation, will be rearranged and have its accommodation capacity
increased. The docks will also be refitted to allow more boats.
To complete the string of improvements, last year we managed, in cooperation with the
Ministry of Transports and CFR-SA, to repair the highway connecting National Highway 1 to
the base. We also placed advertising panels and road indicators. Within the Snagov base,
there is a 1,500-place parking lot, recently repaired and marked. All alleys were also
asphalt-covered, so a car can be used to drive between any two parts of the complex, each
with a separate parking space.
In Snagov, we also offer a diversified range of dishes, especially fish food; but stomach
soup and grill chicken are also highly appreciated. Last year, we acquired barbecuing
equipment that allows us to serve “full-size” rams and calves.
Among our future projects is the modernisation of the Astoria Hotel in order to lift its
ranking to three stars.
R.J.:
What other services does the Astoria Complex offer?
M.M.: We
can organise extremely pleasant rides with the vintage train owned by the patrimony
Division of the CFR – SA. We have already carried out one or two such actions, with
great success. Such rides can be organised on demand, for groups of Romanian and foreign
travellers.
R.J.: What do you think are the
advantages of the Snagov base?
M.M.:
Our base is a great tourist attraction, especially for the Bucharest inhabitants, because
it is quite accessible and offers a special microclimate, as I said earlier.
In the area there are a few particularly interesting tourist sites – including the
church patronised by Vlad the Impaler, on Snagov Island. Also attractive to the public is
the former dictator’s recreation area – the Snagov Sat Complex.
Most of our customers are people of average condition, who arrive accompanied by family
and friends. We offer them three things that I think play a defining role: sanitation –
which is exemplary – and safety, provided non-stop by a specialised firm. The third is
the particularly pleasant atmosphere and the quality of services offered by our personnel,
entirely young and well-trained. And the natural ambience is, as I said before, ideal to
spending a particularly agreeable time in the open air.
Mihai MARCEL - born September 9, 1957,
in the 30 Decembrie village, SAI; |
