Architecture

Crete means hotels. And HRESK is a great chance for them

The island has just over 600,000 inhabitants. Yet every year, up to five million tourists from all over the world come to Crete. They also come to see the beach that, according to Tripadvisor, was named the most beautiful in the world in 2025 – Elafonisi Beach.

It is no wonder that tourism accounts for more than a third of the island’s gross domestic product. And the hotel industry is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance here after the days of covida.

We talked about this with Emmanuela Koutantou, who came to Holešov for the traditional Regata. But above all, she came to see the background of ELKO EP, with which her Cretan company Digitel has been actively cooperating for the second year in hotel projects and retrofits.

“It’s high season for us at the moment, so we don’t build that much. But as soon as the tourists leave, we immediately throw ourselves into renovating and building new hotels and resorts,” says the petite and smiling woman, who found ELKO EP herself last year when she was looking for a reliable European manufacturer and supplier of elements for smart hotels. Her conditions were simple – it had to be not only superior technology, but also first-class service.

The cooperation got moving quite quickly. Jan Kapitanov took charge of the technological part and today Digitel Cretan is one of his important business partners. The Czech company’s solutions can be found, for example, in the Atrion Hotel in Heraklion , where they installed a lighting system with touch panels using the iNELS smart building system, a BUS system or Dali technology in the conference rooms. But also in Fodele beach hotel  and small hotel  projects.

A huge topic is HRESK

“We are currently dealing with a lot of so-called retrofit projects. HRESK is a huge topic because there is nothing worse than obsolescence in the hotel industry. New hotels and accommodations always come with better technology, are built more sustainably, more efficiently – and the older ones are figuring out how to stay competitive. That’s why the HRESK system is really attractive to us, because we can use it to transform an older hotel into a newer one and give it an extra star in no time at all. And of course I’m not talking about cost-effectiveness and payback, because everyone hears about savings,” adds Emmanouelou Koutantou.

She couldn’t praise her programme in the Czech Republic. At ELKO EP’s headquarters in Holešov, she had the opportunity to see the production facilities and have fun during the Regata festival. “The production and the laboratory are world-class, but what was important for me was that I really felt comfortable with practically every person I met here,” concludes the woman from Digitel.

The company, which has been based in Heraklion since 1993, offers a wide portfolio of electronic products and services for end customers and B2B partners.