No.317

April 2010 No. 317
Morris Cassouto
The late Morris Cassutto
arrived in Israel from
Egypt in 1956. He
began working as a clerk
in for Bank Leumi,
while serving at the
same time as a night
clerk at the Validor Hotel, Herzliya. Morris
was pleased with this arrangement, even
though it demanded great effort from him,
since it gave him the opportunity to support
his family.
After he had been with the bank for two years,
the director of human resources approached
him and explained that according to Bank
Leumi regulations, he was prohibited from
holding down a second job, and that he
would have to choose only one. It was at
that very moment that Morris’s career as a
hotelier began! He quit the bank and devoted
himself fully to his hotel work. He managed
the old Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem from
1963 to 1970; from then onwards he was
self employed.
In 1982 Morris Cassouto was chosen to
fill the position of president of the Israel
Hotel Association, where he served until
1986. While still president of the IHA,
Morris was called upon by then Minister
of Tourism Abraham Sharir to manage the
Israel Government Tourist Office in Cairo.
He did so on a volunteer basis until 1990.
Morris’s personality was a blend of good,
pleasant manners, great tolerance and a deep
understanding of hotels, the field to which
he devoted most of his life. He knew how to
tie up loose ends and open doors, to motivate
people and to open the hearts of the many
that could appreciate his personal integrity
and professionalism, and his dedication to
every task to which he devoted himself.
Rumi Gorodiski
6
and one year later we had finished redesigned and upgrading our seven theme
suites - Bridal, Thai, Chinese, Philippine, Moroccan, Indian and Russian
- totally refurbishing them with authentic decor and furniture, along with
parquet flooring, plasma tv, DVD, loudspeakers offering surround sound,
fax, and pampering bathrooms and new Jacuzzis. Whereas earlier, the theme
elements had been more understated, now they have become the essence
of each of these special suites, with a wide range of defining elements such
as those we introduced in the Moroccan ‘Casablanca’ suite, with its totally
authentic Moroccan entranceway, red carpets, canopy bed imported from
Morocco, the Maghreb ornamentation and the floor, with stones inlaid by
hand one by one.”
Once work was completed work on the theme suites, attention at the Princess
was focused on eight of its “Deluxe” suites, which were totally renovated and
rebranded as “Club” suites. At the same time, all the corridors of the hotel
were redone with new carpeting and wooden door frames and the hotel’s
bar/discotheque, renamed “New York-Moscow,” was redone with elements
based on a port on the Bosporus and lots of new lighting. Shortly afterwards,
the hotel’s Princess Club VIP Lounge, located on the 15th floor, where entry
is limited to guests in “Premium” rooms and those paying full rates for suites,
or for a daily fee, was renovated and expanded.
Stage three of room renovations at the hotel began about one year ago and
was completed this past November. As part of this element of the program,
other rooms at the Princess underwent renovations, though not a number
of Premium rooms located on floors 15-17 of the hotel and 33 junior suites
on floors one and three. Work on the former is scheduled to commence this
May or June, with the latter to be attended to somewhat later. “A model
room has been prepared already,” Moneta says. “It will serve as the basis for
a total renovation, with new furnishings, flooring, bathrooms and more, and
we expect this project to be completed by the end of the year. Then, in 2011,
we will get to work on the remaining 320 rooms of the hotel.”
Also at the hotel, the beachfront was upgraded not long ago with new
furnishings, a new barbecue restaurant and snorkeling rental equipment.
More recently, the lobby terrace reopened late this past March with totally
new furniture. The dining room furniture will be replaced by the end of
2010.
VIP Limousine Service
The Princess inaugurated a new version of its VIP limousine service between
the airport and the hotel this past March. “What’s unique about this new
service is that unless it is carrying passengers, our van is always parked at the
airport, and not at the hotel,” Moneta remarks. “There is no timetable,
and even when one guest arrives on a flight, he or she will be picked up
without having to wait.”