Discover Benelux  |  Brussels City  |  The Capital of Europe

A hotel with heart at the heart of Europe TEXT: MARTIN PILKINGTON  |  PHOTOS: HILTON BRUSSELS GRAND PLACE

So many of Europe’s big decisions are taken in Brussels, the EU’s dynamic political and business centre. Significant investment in Hilton Brussels Grand Place should mean more of those decisions will be thought through, slept on, and made in its impressive suite of meeting spaces. Behind its elegantly curving frontage, things are changing in Hilton Brussels Grand Place. In September last year, Swedish conglomerate Pandox AB completed the purchase of the hotel for 55 million euros, attracted – like its clientele – by the establishment’s outstanding location. It will continue to be operated as a Hilton with all the cachet that brand brings, but over the next two years general manager Vieri Biticchi and his team will be instituting a planned three-million-euro 12  |  Issue 39  |  March 2017

investment programme that will deliver major improvements to its meeting and conference facilities in particular. “The hotel is great for tourist visitors to the city,” says Jennifer De Vos, cluster marketing coordinator for Hilton Belgium. “Just a brief stroll from the Manneken Pis and even closer to the beautiful Grand Place and all its attractions, and that side of our business will remain significant. But Brussels has an ever-increasing demand for high-level business-oriented hotels because it’s at the heart of Europe’s business and administrative activity. We aim to provide the best facilities and service for the men and women driving that.” The hotel already has excellent amenities to serve that market including 224 spacious rooms and suites, a comfortable

Executive Lounge, a business centre, well-appointed fitness room open 24/7, and no fewer than 17 meeting and conference rooms. Part of the money Pandox is investing in the business will go into upgrading the audiovisual and communications hardware for those spaces: “We aim to provide the very best meetings technology as part of our offer,” says De Vos.

Keeping pace with business But hardware is not the only thing that makes for good meetings – great service has got to be part of the mix too. “The world of work moves at an incredible pace now,” says Jennifer. “And some of the most significant gatherings may be ones that have to be arranged at short notice, so our Meetings Simplified package makes life as easy as possible for organisations who need to bring, say, 25