PHOTO: The King David, Dan Hotels' flagship property, is a historical site and the headquarters for visiting dignitaries in Jerusalem. (photo courtesy Dan Hotels)

Dan Hotels concluded another round of renovations in an ongoing $300 million, 10-year push to upgrade the Israel chain.

The company just completed a major renovation of 78 rooms out of 292 total in the Dan Panorama in Jerusalem. The work took four and a half months. According to Raffi Sadeh, the president of Dan Hotels, the Dan Panorama is the busiest hotel in Jerusalem after the King David hotel, the company's flagship.

The company also recently completed a makeover of more than 160 rooms of the 504-room Panorama Tel Aviv.

The Dan Carmel in Haifa completed a renovation of the entire property, a project that required the closing of the hotel. The interior was essentially gutted and the old wide hallways were narrowed in order to enlarge the rooms and especially the bathrooms, adding new larger bathtubs and showers to each unit.

All of the chalet rooms of The Dan Accadia Herzliya on the beach were redone.

Plan are underway for a major renovation of the Dan Caesaria.

Building a History

The company’s flagship is the King David hotel in Jerusalem, which was opened in 1931. It is the most famous hotel in Jerusalem, or in Israel. Besides being a highly prestigious hotel where presidents, kings and other major world figures stay when they visit Jerusalem, the King David is a historic site that figures into the history of the foundation of the state of Israel.

The King David pre-dates the Dan Hotels company, which was founded in 1947 by two brothers, Yekutiel and Samuel Federmann. The King David was purchased by the company in 1957.

The company offers two tiers of hotels, the Dan line, which is made up of five star luxury properties, and the Panorama line, which is made up of four and a half to five star properties.

Dan Hotels is a public company, but is majority owned by the founding family. It is one of Israel’s largest hotel chains and according to the company it is the most profitable. It receives more of the tourist business than any other hotel company. Its main competitors, Isrotel and Fattal, receive much of their volume from within the country. Dan Hotels’ largest inbound market is from the U.S.

According to Raffi Sadeh, Dan’s president, Dan Hotels is like the Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons of Israel. Sadeh compares Fatta to Holiday Inn with Isrotel is somewhere between. Dan Hotels has come out on top in the Market Test surveys of the last eight years.

The company now has 14 properties in Israel: The King David, Jerusalem; Dan Jerusalem; Dan Panorama Jerusalem; Dan Boutique, Jerusalem; Dan Tel Aviv; Dan Panorama Tel Aviv; Dan Accadia Herzliya; Dan Carmel, Haifa; Dan Panorama Haifa; Dan Eilat; Dan Panorama Eilat; Dan Caesarea; Dan Gardens, Ashkelon; and Dan Gardens, Haifa.