It has the largest and best equipped congress centre in any hotel in Lisbon. Its location in the city’s financial centre, 10 minutes away from the airport and 10 minutes away from the centre, makes it ideal for business and leisure.
Its recent restructuring makes it one of the best, if not the best, hotel in this growing capital city of Portugal.
The five-star Corinthia Alfa Hotel received the governor of the city as its first guest on 25 April, just one year after the hotel was closed down for an extensive refurbishing programme. The hotel was literally stripped to its concrete structure and rebuilt in no time at all, to the luxury and services that Corinthia is renowned for.
The day after his first night, the governor’s first words to the hotel management were: “I’ve slept really well”. He was right. What else can one ask for after a lengthy and tiring business conference held at the hotel or a day spent running around magnificent Lisbon?
New hotels and refurbished ones normally take months to reach their desired occupancy levels. But the first big test for Corinthia Alfa will come much sooner than that, less than two months after it re-opened.
This is because Portugal will next month be hosting the 2004 European football championships, with 16 nations vying for this most coveted title. In spite of the fact that it is still early days for Corinthia Alfa, it has been entrusted with the not too easy task of accommodating part of the UEFA organising committee for the event.
The hotel, which has 517 rooms, has been fully booked for the duration of this great sport event, which will be held between 12 June and 4 July. No doubt, the vicinity of both the Benfica and Sporting Lisbon stadia – both of them not more than a 15 minute drive – has helped UEFA to select this hotel to place some of its staff.
Added to this, Maltese journalists on a familiarisation trip were told that two of the 16 finalists have booked rooms at the hotel for the duration of the event. We were not informed as to who they are, but corridor whispers indicate that one of them could be Germany.
Back to the hotel.
Corinthia Alfa is one of the many hotels owned by International Hotel Investments plc, a Maltese company set up by the Corinthia Group which has some 3,500 shareholders. Over these past years, Corinthia has grown to become a household name in various important European cities — apart from Lisbon, Corinthia has hotels in Budapest, Prague, Belgium, Gambia, Libya, Togo, Turkey and St Petersburg, not to mention its properties in Malta.
Before it was taken over by Corinthia, Alfa was already an established hotel in Lisbon. It was the first choice for businessmen, but it was also high on the preferred list for people on vacation.
Now that it has been renewed, the Corinthia Alfa is a top business hotel in a city that has progressively joined the international route of congresses, an area that is quickly expanding in Portugal.
The 24-storey Corinthia Alfa now boasts of the largest congress centre in five-star hotels in Lisbon – a total area of 3,000 square metres spread out over 17 rooms with a total capacity for 1,400 persons.
Through its facilities, Corinthia Alfa Hotel has entered the field of MICE services – Meetings, Incentives, Conference, Events. It is dedicated to the organisation of conference and business meetings by offering the right infrastructure that are essential for the success of such ventures.
Needless to say, there is a Maltese touch in this too. The main conference hall is called Floriana, for two reasons. The first is that the Corinthia Group’s headquarters are based in this Maltese town, and the second is that Floriana was built by a Portuguese Grand Master, Vilhena, whose statue stands across the Group’s offices in St Anne Street.
This is the first of two articles on the Hotel. The second will be published on Friday.
Special thanks to Mr Alfred Fabri, Corinthia Group company secretary; Mr Andreas Schuster, Corinthia Alfa Lisbon general manager, and Ms Ana Pinto, Corinthia Alfa Lisbon public relations manager.