Pawel Lewtak, Board Member at Syrena Hotels (which owns three hotels in Central Warsaw) and General Manager at the Polonia Palace Hotel, is this year’s winner of the prestigious award “European Hotel Manager”, that EHMA – European Hotel Managers Association – annually confers to a member who has achieved results of excellence in hotel management during the preceding year and all over his/her career.
The prize was awarded in recognition of the outstanding achievements in his 20-year hotelier career in managerial positions both in chain and independent hotels and of the positioning of the Polonia Palace Hotel in the local market.
“It is an honor for me to be recognized among such experienced hoteliers and at the same time as the first member of EHMA from Poland representing our market”, comments Pawel. “2020 has been an extremely challenging year but now, fortunately, we see a lot of positive signs of recovery in Poland and Warsaw. Poland is emerging from lockdown, as Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down. Restrictions for international traffic are being gradually relaxed: borders are open for EU and EFTA nationals. The vaccination is picking up momentum every day in Poland and Government is planning to have a 60% vaccination rate by the end of August 2021. At the moment almost all the guests in Polish hotels are domestic. We see a high demand during weekends (both leisure and city hotels) and mediocre occupancy on weekdays. Business travel recovers slowly, but definitely, taking the circumstances into account, we expect to have positive Summer months”.
In 2019 Warsaw Airports recorded a traffic of 22 million passengers. In recent years Warsaw has grown a reputation as a major business and leisure destination in Europe. The Polonia Palace Hotel is one of the landmark hotels in Warsaw – it dates back to 1913 and was thoroughly renovated in 2004-2005 accommodating more than 100,000 guests every year. The hotel is mainly targeted at business travelers, but due to its historic nature and uniqueness it is also extremely popular with tourists.
With more than 20 years of professional and diversified experience within international and Polish chains as well as unique independent hotels, Paweł Lewtak as General Manager and Board Member has a progressive record of achievements including successful opening and positioning of hotels, developing business through effective sales and marketing strategies, managing operations including major renovation projects, food and beverage including MICE sales. Setting and maintaining highest quality standards proven by excellent online reviews. Building and leading successful teams. Paweł Lewtak has been working in Syrena Hotels for 14 years, he has been General Manager of Polonia Palace since 2013 and he has served as Member of the Management Board of the company responsible for operations and marketing for more than 5 years. He holds and executive MBA from ESG – University of Quebec at Montreal and from the Warsaw School of Economics. During 2020 Pawel Lewtak set up new sanitary standards for hotels in Poland together with Polish Chamber of the Hotel Industry and Polish Tourism Organization.
About EHMA
EHMA - European Hotel Managers Association was founded in Rome in 1974 by some "executives" of the hotel industry of undisputed professional ethics with the objective to maintain and increase the image of the hotel heritage. It is made up of top-level hotel general managers who constantly strive to improve their and their staff’s professionalism in luxury hospitality in order to maintain, perfect and innovate services offered to their customers. Currently the Association has nearly 400 members representing 29 European countries of which about 300 are General Managers of luxury hotels. In figures, this represents around 300 hotels, 85,000 rooms and 65,000 employees.
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