Thursday, June 26, 2008

Hollidays and Weekends

Each and every Friday morning and a day before every national holiday, I get really angry with radio hosts saying things like » This is the last day of the week, you don’t have to come to work tomorrow and you can rest over the weekend« or “Holidays are coming and we are sure that you will be enjoying your free time.” Don't they realize that some people work on weekends, holidays and nights? It is not just people in tourism in hotels and restaurants, but also police, hospitals, power plants etc... Funny thing is that even people on the radio and the TV have to work on weekends as well. Or do they record everything in advance and then a machine plays it? Well, for sure cleaning of a hotel room can not be recorded in advance and neither can be a massage in the wellness center. Although with the latest advances in robotic technologies, you never know? If they can teach a robot to dance and play football, they might teach it to check you in at the front desk. Would you like that?

Anyhow, hotel business simply means that we work especially hard when other people are on holidays. Hopefully they are on holidays in our hotel.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

EU presidency


Slovenia took over the presidency of EU in the first half of this year. For Grand Hotel Toplice this was an important event since we hosted people such as Mr. Solana, Mr. Barroso, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon and many others. We also hosted several gala dinners for different events. On one side I am sorry that it is over and the presidency will be taken over by France in just a few days. On the other side, it will be quiet a relief for many of our guests as well as staff, since everything will go back to normal. No more tight security measures, no more police in and outside of the hotel, no more VIP related stress. I suppose if this was a kind of international test for Slovenia, we all did quite well.

Now back to the hotel. Julijana, our “A la carte” restaurant has opened its outside terrace with new set of chairs and tables made of acacia wood. The photo will tell you more! Don't you just wish to be able to sit there, admire the view and enjoy good food?

Saturday, June 14, 2008

VINARTE




Yesterday was a very important day for our hotel. We opened a new facility, a wine bar called Vinarte. It turned out really beautiful thanks to our architect Andreja Remih who did an amazing job. The wine bar features 300 different labels of wine, mostly from Slovenia, but also books about wine, wine accessories etc.. Place is perfectly suitable for wine tasting for groups of 10-30 people. The opening went really well. Five wine makers from Slovenia donated and presented their wines at the opening and we all enjoyed good wine and good food. I was nervous of course, but it kind of melted away, since the company was nice too. Vinarte will be opened from Tuesday till Sunday from 9a.m. till noon and from 5p.m. till 11p.m. More on http://www.vinarte-bled.com/.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Something Japanese














I decided to add a little Japanese feature to the terrace: a small Japanese garden to break down the traditional arrangement of the terrace. I am not sure what the feed-back will be, because something like this in Bled can be considered too bold. I can always say it’s just some rocks and stones, but you never know if it will be pleasing. Most of our regular guests will come in July and they will be sure to tell me whether or not they like it.

Being a director of the best hotel in what is considered the prime tourist location in the country can have its up-s and down-s. One of the down-s is certainly the fact that everything I do is under a tight scrutiny of the local public with its own perception of what is wrong and what is right. The unorthodox is usually considered as wrong and standard-classical as right. Not that is ever stopped me from doing what I really wanted to do. I am a bit stubborn. Only a bit. A little bit.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

UEFA EURO 2008

You are probably wondering what is the connection between Grand Hotel Toplice and European Football Championship 2008. Well the fact is that one of the towns that host the matches of EURO 2008 is Klagenfurt in Austria, only a few kilometers away from Bled. Some of the fans have made reservations in our hotel during the match Germany - Poland on June 8th. You can imagine that German fans were extremely happy after winning 2:0, whereas Polish fans still have hope to win the next match with Austria on the 12th June. This is a polite way of saying that they were not happy at all. We have placed a large 108cm LCD TV in the presidential lounge where our guests can enjoy watching matches in a company of other football fans. Bar is of course placed conveniently close to the Presidential lounge. I myself am looking forward to some interesting performances. My favorites for the victory? Due to political reasons and the fact that we have guests from all over Europe in the hotel, I can not say. Sorry!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Banquet dinner







Grand Hotel Toplice is famous also for one more thing and that is organizing of high quality banquet dinners for large groups, wedding receptions, and other events.



Yesterday for example we organized a dinner for 380 people and here is their menu:

Salmon tris (Mousse, mignon, praline)


Cream shrimps soup with herbs and scampi tails


Beef fillet with goose liver and truffles

Baked white “Polenta” with parmesan

Glazed new vegetables


Mango Cake with Coconut Mousse, Pina Colada Espuma

On one of the photos is service staff that managed this event brilliantly and on the other the set-up of the restaurant Grand just before the event. The satisfaction of the event organizers was huge and I am proud of my staff for doing it so well. I must not forget the kitchen staff, that performed a small miracle producing such a large amount of food while maintaining quality and presentation at the highest standard.