Princess Hotel rebrands as Ramada

The Princess Hotel is now formally the Ramada Belize City Princess. The announcement was made by new General Manager Erol Olcan this morning, during a media breakfast at the hotel. The Ramada brand is owned by the Windham Hotel Group, which is the largest hotel company in the world, operating well known chains like Planet Hollywood, Day’s Inn and Travel Inn. It’s not a buyout, but a partnership between Ramada and Turkish owned Princess International. So what does it mean for the Princess? Well, Olcan says that apart from the new signs and product branding, the facility will be getting some needed upgrades.

Erol Olcan, General Manager, Ramada Belize City Princess

Erol Olcan

“We decided to join them but I have to underline that clearly the hotel is not being sold. We are an original company, as you know a Turkish company, Princess International. The original company is running the show and they are going to continue. You will see a few of my management company in the back and myself – we are all here and we are staying under the name of Ramada. Why will we join the Ramada? Because of the marketing aspect of it…we will join in their reservation system and we will get more business to our hotel and consequently more business to our country. What we have, and maybe we will get more support and more help from the Ramada – that is going to develop our stuff and the hotel as well, because their standards – we have to reach their standards. I’ll give you some examples – very soon I am going to change the whole one hundred and sixty rooms televisions, and we’re going to change all the televisions and bring them up to date…that is one of them. And inside the bedrooms – tables, linens, towels, bathroom materials like soaps and shampoos…that’s all going to change to meet the Ramada standards. And yes, there is money involved at the end, a lot of money. I think why we are doing this I have to really sort of say…we are developing ourselves. It’s nice that the country is getting better with a lot of tourists around. And we will bring more.”

The partnership currently applies only to the facility in Belize City, and it doesn’t include the casino inside the hotel, which remains the sole property of Princess International.