You're reading: Posh Radisson hotel set for February start in Bukovel ski area

A decade ago nobody in the little village of Polyanytsia in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast would have thought that it would host a five-star hotel with a famous international brand name.

But on Feb. 1 of next year, the 252-room Radisson Blu will welcome its first guests to its hotel there, built to service the increasing number of tourists who are coming to Bukovel, the biggest ski resort in the area.

“This is the only hotel in western Ukraine that is internationally branded,” said Peter Tichy, the hotel’s general manager.

A 2 ½-year building project by the time it opens, Radisson is only the managing company. The owner is Ukrainian and remains unidentified.

The hotel will have 252 rooms, more than 2,000 meters of spa area and five conference halls to be able to service a business audience in low season. The biggest conference room will be able to accommodate 300 people. There will be a fitness club, a range of health and beauty treatments, including a swimming pool and various saunas.

Unsurprisingly, “the prices will be around Kyiv prices,” Tichy says.

That means a standard double room will cost up to 500 euro per night during the ski season and up to 100 euro during the low season. The prices are high compared to competitors.

Bukovel Hotel, located in the same area, charges 50 euro for a standard room during the low season, and around 300 euro for the same room in ski season.

Anna Zhuk, a skier and regular visitor to Bukovel, says she will not be spending top dollar to ski in Ukraine. “I am sure that Radisson is a great hotel,” she says. “But the price they offer is the same as in Austrian and Swiss resorts, while the level of service in Bukovel is still much lower. I would rather
go to Europe for that money.”

The new hotel’s manager is not deterred. “We are not targeting people who will go to cheap places,” Tichy explains. The target is “the Ukrainian upper class and hopefully Russian upper class or mid-upper class.”

Tichy says he has been courting companies in Kyiv and inviting them to consider coming over to Radisson Blue Bukovel in the low season for their seminars, conferences and team-building exercises, combined with rafting, mountain biking, paintball and walking in the mountains. “The response has been ‘At last!’” Tichy says.

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Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].