They say running a hotel feels a lot like running a big family. Something new happens every day. Some days, life feels like a continuous party. Other days, a family member needs your immediate attention and you have to drop everything. And most days, it’s all about finding that fine balance between a homey feeling and the innate need for adventure most of us have.

Irina and Bogdan Bona, the owners of New Era Hotel know all this very well. They opened the 4-star hotel in November 2018 and, ever since then, they have poured their heart, soul and expertise into offering their guests the ideal mix of homey touches and adventure starting point.

When they decided to onboard this adventure, none of them had ever managed a hotel before. But they did have complementary work experience.

The Background

Irina had worked for more than 10 years in large multinational corporations as a management consultant. The knowledge she accumulated in companies like PriceWaterhouseCoopers proved to be invaluable in the initial phases of the project: market research, audit, planning, budgeting, process design and more.

Bogdan, on the other hand, started out with a background in IT, which he quickly left to follow his entrepreneurial drive. He built and managed skating rinks, restaurants, cafés, tennis courts and many other leisure facilities in Bucharest and Timisoara before New Era Hotel.

In fact, he jokes about diving into this project because ‘Ho’ was all that was missing from his HoReCa adventure.

Their cumulative work backgrounds helped Irina and Bogdan built a business from scratch. Right now, New Era Hotel is becoming an internationally known brand and is slowly settling among the symbols of Bucharest’s Old City Centre.

The Current Challenges

“When our family grew, we decided to invest our capital and our expertise into a ‘proper’ family business. Something that we can work on together and transform it into the kind of experience that we ourselves were searching for during our holidays or business trips”, says Irina Bona. “We could have gone the ‘franchise’ way and work for a big hotel chain. But we think there are plenty of those. We wanted to offer our guests a completely different experience, one with homey touches and delicious food made from scratch. Just like our business idea”, she adds.

Choosing the Old City Centre as the hotel’s location wasn’t an accident. They had waited for a long time for the right opportunity to present itself.

“We know the Old Town is the epicenter of everything that happens in Bucharest right now, especially for tourists. We chose it because it’s the ideal location for both urban exploration and partying. And yes, even for business meetings, which is why we have also added two conference rooms”, says Bogdan Bona.

In fact, even the name of the hotel, New Era, tells you something about what the owners had in mind. It’s located on Selari, one of the oldest streets in Bucharest. And while the building is brand-new it kept the architectural style of the former ‘occupant’ – Art Nouveau and Baroque with contemporary accents. It’s a New Era, indeed, but one that cherishes and values the older eras.

Much like the Old City Centre itself, the rooms at New Era Hotel offer a mix of classic touches and state-of-the-art technology and comfort.

“We didn’t want to build a ‘standard’ hotel. Instead, we wanted to offer an experience that our guests can truly call ‘home away from home’. For instance, our breakfast is home-cooked and freshly made every day. We use local ingredients as much as possible for two reasons: we want to support the local businesses and be a sustainable business ourselves and, of course, we want to offer our guests a taste of Romania from the very first hours of the day”, says Irina. “Plus, all our rooms are designed for rest, relaxation and even work. A bit of everything, just like you would spend your time at home.”

 

Curious to see how New Era Hotel holds up to this promise? Why not book a room in our 4-star hotel in the Old City Centre of Bucharest and find out!