Cornel Posea is a hotelier "all his life". Always attracted by new projects, by the pleasure of creating new things, he considers that "routine kills me and bores me, even though many of the activities I encounter every day are routine. Many tell me that I am a lone wolf or a workaholic Don Quixote who is addicted to the most difficult projects".
Raised by his grandmother who told him: "child well you do well, well will return and always do well", he tried to do good all the time. He believes in people and believes the world can be better,"although many times I was told that I am naive, many other times I was disappointed, but that could not make me give up believing in people and good things".
He was born in Brasov, but grew up in Covasna, a small and peaceful town with a lot of tourism around, until he went to university, he never thought for a second that he would make a career in tourism: "I was pre-med all through high school.
A results list shattered all my teenage dreams of becoming a doctor in a second. There were others who were better than me on that 13-at-a-time exam, where I recited anatomy by heart. It was a strange moment when I realized that I had played everything on one card and that it was not the winning card".
Inevitably, there followed a difficult moment of suspense and introspection in which he thought about what to do, where to go. He realized that all this time he had another passion: "to travel, to be among tourists, among people, to explore. Yes, perhaps the term exploring best characterizes what was and still is in me. When I was a child I used to write to Cousteau that I wanted to go on expeditions with him, trying all kinds of mountain tours, dreaming of expeditions to the end of the world."
He finished them both "I had two majors at the end and I was more and more attracted to tourism. I tried to look for a job as a guide or anything in a hotel, but of course it was complicated. Everywhere I tried I was told to be patient, but nothing happened.
They'd kick me out the door and I'd come back through the window. I told them I could do things for free and I started to write posters for the trips that were being organized - there were still some OJT posters - and put them up wherever I could.
At one point they called me in that dispatcher's office that belonged to a group of hotels in Covasna and asked me if I wanted to go as a guide with a group of French-speaking Israelis on a trip to Poiana Brasov.
Of course I said instant yes. I guess they didn't feel like going and looked for someone. But that's how I started. Then I worked a whole summer as a guide in another hotel, but in the fall they didn't need me anymore.
I also started teaching, but I didn't give up, I was still in hotels, doing everything. And at a certain point they called me to reopen a travel agency and a dispatcher (that was the term back then) for reservations."
At S.C. T. Covasna SA - hotels Caprioara, Cerbu and Covasna - she did everything: reception, housekeeping, because she worked in a resort, the hotel had a treatment center and then she helped her colleagues and nurses when they had various emergencies, she also carried an oxygen tank, etc.
After 3 years, he was offered the chance to participate in a competition for a hotel manager position in Bazna, at the Spa Complex, which was about to open.
"In fact, this was the first important step that somehow defined my path. At this point I had my own hotel that I had to run as I knew best. I was 27, I was almost a kid, all my colleagues were older than me and I decided what to do. It was the first big challenge, and I say I succeeded".
He knew how to play to his strengths: "All my life I've loved to laugh, I've been cheerful and a born choleric (not to say crazy). I have so much energy that I give thanks for every day. Starting from these as well as a lot of nasty ideas that went through my head, I managed to make a cool and good team that would follow me everywhere. And we were really doing all sorts of things at the time - we're talking about the 2000s."
"I had a group of psychologists in the hotel headed by Professor Boghaty whose appreciation, I can't only say that it honors me and forces me to be better.
Without knowing me at the time, when he saw how I was taking care of the hotel and their group, he came into my office and said, "young man, let me tell you that you are doing natively what we are struggling to teach these students and it doesn't always work out".
It was one of the coolest things I've ever been told, especially since I was just starting out. He also taught me something that guided me respectively: to accept only new mistakes. And yes, a lot of people were amazed at the percept that was sitting posted in my office that "we only accept new mistakes" and didn't understand how we accept mistakes."
It was also during that period that he had the chance to win an IHRA scholarship:"I couldn't believe that I got it and everyone outside congratulated me, except my colleagues in the guild who some of them told me that they would challenge me. I didn't give it a second thought, I went to the States, where in 2000 I learned a tourism that maybe we are just now doing here.
I stayed at Bazna for 8 years, but when I saw that things were taking a unionist turn I decided to leave".
"In the meantime I had managed to set up a travel agency, Passpartout Medias, now Eximtur Medias, a small pension Bassen Pension- www.bassen.rowhere I said I do everything I can't do in a hotel.
After a few months of consultancy he was offered the position of manager in Ocna Sibiului, also to open another resort.
"It was like a glove. Other challenges, much more freedom, so I could accomplish more. I caught the period with Sibiu Cultural Capital, a lot of great projects.
I ran this resort for more than 3 years until the owners changed, at which point I took a break and went back to my own.
While I was in Ocna Sibiului I also did a master's degree in Lausanne, it was a challenge but also a pleasure given what I learned and the colleagues I had".
He didn't stay long, and another project came along: "O3zone in Tusnad, same structure, a hotel with an investment to finish, and to put back on the market. The name of the hotel belongs to me, I know where it comes from, maybe those who run it now don't even know this story, I opened the hotel on my birthday.
From there we ended up in another project at Balvanyos Resort, through a conjunction of factors. An extraordinary place with an equally extraordinary owner. I also worked here to the fullest, I enjoyed a year and a half working side by side with the owner who in my opinion is a visionary. It was fun and challenging.
From there I came back home, where I still had my projects, in the meantime I opened a hostel in Timisoara (Passpartout Hostel), a super-cozy house decorated after Jules Verne's stories, with many projects related to Timisoara, its culture and gastronomy.
Castelnor Resort in Paltinis. A gem of a hotel, somewhat similar in some parts to my first hotel, but much more stylish. Super nice owners, we met for a half hour chat and after 6 hours we were still chatting.
The same challenges, maybe even bigger, starting the hotel, building a team to market it. Although it's not a big hotel, it was perhaps one of the most challenging projects for me. But I think from one project to another I actually wanted more and more to do different things. These were the premises I think from which we started to Castelnor ".
I think my greatest achievement are actually my two children Alexandru - Alexica, as I call him, now a resident doctor - and Ioana, a sixth year medical student - they have somehow continued perhaps what I wanted to follow.
It's hard for me to define one, but I think all my work and everything I've done is a success, at least for me. The fact that I am the way I am maybe is a success again. A very good friend of mine once told me that I'm abnormal and told me not to get upset but that's how I am. But he continued: "because you Posea are A NORMAL, that is outside the norm, that is different and that makes you what you are". I sat and thought and thought and agreed with him, the abnormal me.
I think one hard moment, which didn't necessarily define me as a person but certainly made me think about everything was an accident I had a few years ago, before I was working at Balvanyos, when I missed a railroad track and was pulled out from under a train.
Then the lights came on a second time and I'm really telling everyone this. Then I promised myself that I would slow things down, it lasted a while and then the engines revved up again. But I never forget that moment.
The most beautiful thing I think are my friends. I don't have many friends, being left-handed I say that they sit on my left hand, so they fit on the fingers of this hand.
I could say the same for all the expeditions and cool places I've been, now if I think about the tribes in Africa, the sauna in the jungle in Colombia, friends in Japan, Asian markets and many other places I think I would add them here.
That people are parsimonious and mean very often. And I learned that when I decided to leave Bazna. But this is not about my team, it's about the people who will never know how to be like the people in my respective teams: good, cool, dedicated, extraordinary.
Back then we had a period when unsubstantiated claims were flowing in, all of which were proven to be false. Perhaps I can say that this is also a hard lesson given that I believe extremely much in people and in words.
I can't stand lies and fatarity. Not at all.
The hotel which for me is a living being, new projects, my travels, family, friends.
I don't think I have any fears, I always try to turn any fear into a challenge.
I want to travel around the world, so that I have two years to go around the world - like Jules Verne's Passepartout 😊
Spa hotels will develop more and more, especially if we talk about Romania, where until now this part has been almost non-existent (we are only talking about treatment centers and not about spas).
Services will become more complex and refined, more challenging in terms of offer and diversity. There will be an increasing combination of spa, activities, gastronomy and many other components that will be integrated into the resorts - from music to lights, to textures and colors.
In addition to this, a trend that I see after we try a lot of more and more sophisticated products, we will come to the conclusion how good are the essential elements of nature.
It is a simple message, which I say to my colleagues, friends: Life is wonderful, live it and enjoy it.
Founder despreSpa.ro
