Foreigners or Romanians living abroad always say Romanian hotels belonging to international chains have high prices. Higher than in other capitals around Europe. I always wondered why this policy was accepted. Wouldn't foreigners be reluctant to pay more for the same services? Well, first I thought most customers of 4-5 stars hotels are business tourists. So they couldn't care less about prices. Another fact just caught my attention today. This pricing policy is really working:

Out of the 32 hotels operated by the Marriott group within continental Europe, the JW Marriott hotel in Bucharest is among the top five contributors to the group's turnover, says Kurt Strohmayer, general manager of the hotel.

"Contrary to the general opinion, the most profitable hotels are not those in Western Europe. The hotels that contribute the most to the group's business, with the exception of the American market, are those in Russia, followed by those in Eastern Europe", Strohmayer says.

Last year, the five-star hotel posted 38.5 million-euro turnover and 16-million euro profit. On the local market, JW Marriott leads the ranking of most profitable hotels, according to financial information provided by Societatea Companiilor Hoteliere Grand, the company managing the hotel.

More in ZF.

My Saturday did not start all that well. Actually, it started at around 10 with one neighbor doing some repairing involving a hammer and lots of noise. Did I mention I had fallen asleep at 4 am? Anyway, while I was trying to pretend I could still sleep if I tried hard enough, my phone rang. Vibrated actually, cause I keep forgetting it on silent mode this days. It was Cris Z, asking what plans Silviana and I had made. We had none, so we decided to meet at Unirea and decide on the spot.

We were late, so changed the meeting point from the overrated "in front of Mc" to "in front of Gregory's" where we then helped ourselves to huge recipients of coffee. I had Cherry Mocha again, of course. Then we started walking. The first stop was in the park just in front of the National Theater.
We then started wandering on random streets. I was the party leader, that meant I chose one street and they followed because they could not be bothered to choose on their own. More important talking to do, relax and everything. And my decisions, well, they were based on a "uuuu, shinny" feeling :P Actually it was more like where can I get a nice photo? This house in ruins was a good example.
Although I pretty much knew where we were, we were soon walking on narrow streets we had never been on. It was an interesting feeling actually, have not experienced it in a while.
We then felt like sitting down and resting for a few minutes. So we entered the Cismigiu Park. My favorite one in Bucharest, for some reason. More photos, more walking, fresh air, flowers and trees. The great outdoor. Or a little peace of outdoor in the middle of Bucharest.
After lots of food (I had a huge pizza) and some lemonade, we decided to walk home (it takes an hour and some change). And so we did, but during our trip back to the apartment we made one last stop in another park, Tineretului. This is an extremely large park with a beautiful lake in the middle. I could only take a couple of photos, as my camera needed its rest, so its battery died.
It was a perfect day after all, filled with everything I needed: fresh air, relaxation, my friends to share the experience with me. And my camera as well. As I lost most of my photos, I really have to fill my hard drive with new ones. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend as much as I am.

The New York Times published an interesting article on coffee shop and fast food chains offering wireless internet access to their customers. As the author emphasizes, wi-fi connections are to coffee shops what air conditioning has been to movie theaters a few decades ago.

The article describes the services offered by different companies to their customers, referring to their pricing policies, the support they offer and the imminent lack of security all wireless connections entail.

From what I know about Bucharest, Pizza Hut offers such free services to its customers in most of its restaurants. And I read an article a while ago about a huge redesign plan for all McDonalds restaurants, who would, upon completion, also provide internet services to customers. I am pretty sure the internet is supposed to be free. Which would be a smart choice for Romania, as few of us would pay to get online at McDonalds.