Atra Doftana bets on high-end tourism despite crisis

One year after its official opening, the five-star guesthouse Atra Doftana has generated EUR 162,000 in revenues by attracting some 5,000 tourists to the little known but promising area of Doftana Valley. The owners see this niche business growing further over the years to come and are even considering expanding it, BR found out. 

By Simona Bazavan

With its modern architecture and interior design, a gourmet restaurant boasting an Italian chef and jazz music drifting through the hallways, the unconventional five-star Atra Doftana tourist guesthouse is an unexpected and almost alien presence in the rural and traditional area of Doftana Valley.

Located on the banks of Lake Paltinu, some 130 km fromBucharest, the guesthouse is owned by Emil Munteanu, Eduard Dimitriev, Stefan Mustata and Razvan Florea, four local entrepreneurs with established businesses in IT, EU funds consultancy and home installations. The four of them decided to invest in a high-end tourist side project back in 2008.

“We all had small kids and loved to go to the mountains for the weekend. We were looking for more elegant accommodation with good quality services but such places were fully booked most of the time. Then came the crisis and this still didn’t change. So we saw potential for this high-end niche,” said Florea.

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The owners knew they wanted to build a place by a lake and after seeing several other locations decided onDoftanaValleybecause of the landscape and the proximity toBucharest– between an hour and a half and two hours from the capital by car.

Located close to the much more popular and crowded Prahova Valley, Doftana Valley is a rural area with mostly untapped tourist potential. “We are not competing with Prahova Valley, but rather offering an alternative. We want those coming here to enjoy peace and tranquility,” said Munteanu.

The area’s main attraction is Lake Paltinu, on the Doftana River, a place swarming with local campers during weekends. There are several other guesthouses in the villages of Doftana Valley but these are mostly two-star locations which focus on rural tourism.

The modern and art-focused Atra Doftana is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The guesthouse has only eight rooms each costing RON 290 (approximately EUR 67) per night, breakfast included. This also includes access to a lake-view gym and sauna and children’s playground, and guests can use the facility’s mountain bikes and kayaks. Atra also organizes trips to nearby traditional mountain sheep farms which are very common in the area.

A winning project

The unconventional Atra Doftana was designed by award-winning architect Bogdan Babici and George Maftei from Tecon and won first prize at the Bucharest Architecture Annual Awards last year in its category. The modern building was built to respect the surrounding landscape and using traditional local materials.

Its structure slopes down a steep terrain towards Lake Paltinu. The first level contains the guestrooms, gym and reception area and is located just beneath the roof which provides access to the building and serves as a parking lot. The second level is just beneath and features the restaurant and a lounge.

The numbers behind the story

Atra Doftana was officially opened last year following a EUR 1 million investment. Some EUR 200,000 of the money was EU funds, the maximum sum that could be accessed for this type of project. Getting the EU money, however, was no mean feat, say the owners. One year after completing the project they are still waiting to receive the last installment because of the bureaucracy in the system.

The owners estimate they can recover the initial investment in about 10-15 years. Until then, the guesthouse has brought RON 700,000 (approximately EUR 162,000) in revenues in the first year, 40 percent of which came from accommodation while the restaurant generated the rest.

Atra Doftana reported a 40 percent average occupancy rate for the first year. This ranged from 10 percent in February due to the extreme weather conditions to about 90 percent in August. The facility has eight rooms with a total capacity of 25 places. About 60 percent of the 5,000 guests were individuals while the rest came for business/corporate events.

During weekends and holiday seasons demand for accommodation outstrips capacity, leading the owners to consider expanding the business in the future. “We could use another 10 rooms but we don’t intend to extend the existing construction or build a large hotel. Most likely we will build some small locations in the nearby area which would be in close connection to the existing guesthouse,” they said.

More concrete future development plans include increasing revenues by 20 percent next year, a growth rate Munteanu and Florea consider normal for a start-up business. This should come from boosting the average annual occupancy rate by 10 percent and by promoting the gourmet restaurant as a destination in its own right. They also intend to continue art initiatives such as the most recent contemporary painting exhibition, by Ramon Grosos, and to promote Doftana Valley as a tourist destination.