By Fiona Hurrell, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Windsor Hotel group already offers an impressive eleven hotels in the city of Rio, focused on providing international-level service and expanding within the Cidade Maravilhosa. Now with the re-opening of the Windsor Miramar scheduled for May following a two year renovation project, the Windsor hotel group certainly has more to look forward to.
Marketing director Paulo Marcus reveals, “The Miramar in Copacabana has been completely redesigned with two-hundred rooms, a rooftop pool, fitness center and a [culinary] restaurant. We are all really looking forward to seeing it open again.”
Windsor Atlântica, Windsor Excelsior, and the recently renovated Windsor Miramar are situated on the beachfront of Copacabana’s famous Avenida Atlântica, offering exquisite views across the ocean.
Windsor Martinique, Windsor Plaza, Windsor Palace and Windsor Copa are all located within a short walk to the beach and close to cafes, shops, bars and restaurants and are located near direct travel links to downtown as well as to Rio’s domestic and international airports.
Although mostly situated in Copacabana, other Windsor hotels can be found in Flamengo, Barra da Tijuca and Centro where the chain’s first hotel, the Windsor Guanabara, opened 25 years ago.
All of the hotels are tastefully decorated and fitted with modern facilities, as the company works to keep international standards up for the approaching mega events. Also popular with professionals conducting business in Rio, Windsor hotels offer the use of their convention centers in which guests can host events of varying size.
The Windsor Barra hotel alone boasts sixty conference rooms and offers a quality catering service. For smaller meetings, the Windsor Atlântica houses twelve small supporting rooms alongside twelve larger rooms, some of which offer breathtaking views across the beach.
Alternatively, if being beach side seems a little distracting, the Windsor Florida in Flamengo offers fifteen comfortable meeting rooms as well as good transportation links to Rio’s airports. All meeting rooms in any of the Windsor hotels are fully fitted with air conditioning and a range of conference material and technology equipment is available.
Mr. Marcus explains, “All of our hotels have services specifically catered to corporate guests and tourists although some are set up to be able to accommodate both. The Windsor Atlântica is the perfect example of this; where we have conference rooms and facilities as well as a spa and kids club.”
According to Marcus, the wide range of hotels in the Windsor group ensures that whatever the nature of a particular guest’s visit, there will be a suitable hotel. He does however admit that certain hotels seem to appeal for particular reasons.
He adds, “The most popular hotels, in terms of affordability, are the Windsor Copa and the Windsor Martinique but the most famous is without a doubt the Atlântica because of its prime location and five star facilities and service.”
In terms of future prospects, Marcus is confident that the Windsor brand will continue to grow both in the short and long term. He reveals, “We are planning to open two more Windsor hotels in Barra da Tijuca for the World Cup and we have some fun things planned for the Easter holiday that we hope people will enjoy.”