From waiter to multiple five star hotel entrepreneur

Tourism can offer fabulous opportunities to those who have sustainable dreams – and work hard!

Antonio Batani died a couple of years ago but not before he and his family had made a beautiful and sustainable mark on the tourism world, both in his home country – Italy’s Romagna, and globally.

Leaving his home country to get experience abroad, 15-year-old ‘Tonino’ got a job as a waiter in Switzerland. Here he did a six year stint before returning to Romagna to set himself up in business in 1957 by renting ‘Delia’ a sixteen room hotel on the Adriatic coast.

With his mother in the kitchen, his sisters doing the cleaning and him and his father waiting on tables, Tonino set out to deliver great food and hospitality and cheap prices. Naturally it was hard work but successful work. Every off-season he refined his gastronomic skills at a hotel management school and after another ten years of work – in 1967 – Tonino married his receptionist Luciana and bought some land in the coastal pinewoods to build his own hotel.

His Pensione Batani was a two star 32 room hotel, but still not quite good enough for Tonino and Luciana. Before long he saw the opportunity on becoming a hotel developer. To create exactly what he wanted Tonino sold his pensione and bought the Universal Hotel, then the properties around it including another hotel and a couple of guest houses. Here he demolished everything and built the four star Hotel Universal to his own plans.

But his objective was the swish resort of Milano Marittima also on the Adriatic coast where he could command better prices. In 1983 he rented the Hotel Gallia a fabulous four star hotel on Milano Marittima’s strip. By now Tonino and Luciana’s family had grown, Giamnni was now 15, Cristina was 11 and Paola was 5 when tourism disaster struck the Adriatic coast a green mess – called ‘Mucilage’ covered the sea all along the coast and frightened off bathers and tourists.

It also frightened local hoteliers who thought that tourism was finished. Not so Tonino – he bought the beautiful Hotel Aurelia, he rented the Hotel Doge and he rented the Mare Pineta, Milano Marittima’s distinguished top hotel complex with many VIP clients, then he set his sights away from the sea and bought land in his mother’s birthplace in the hills where he created a four star spa hotel – the Miramonti next to a lovely mountain lake.

And finally, in his passion for perfection, he created the Fattoria Batani, his own organic farm delivering ultra-fresh, healthy produce to his hotels every day where it is used in refined recipes to create fabulous food – farm to fork taken to the extreme in his quest for superb tastes.

Strawberry fields!

So all year, Tonino travelled around his hotels and farm in his minibus making sure that all the family’s guests were getting the very best. And then he spotted another superb local hotel opportunity.

A hotel with the perfect position in Milano Marittima was bought and immediately demolished – in its place Tonino created the sensational Palace Hotel, at the time it was opened 2005, it was the only 5 star hotel on the coast.

And, of course, Tonino was shortly to change all that – just a year later he bought the Mussolini era seafront boarding house – the Colonia Veronese in Cesenatico and began a vast building project to create yet another wonderland five star hotel – the da Vinci Grand in the beautiful port that Leonardo assayed for Cesare Borgia.

The 15,000 square metre luxury hotel has rooms in four different styles equipped with the latest technology. Among the elegant suites there is even one entirely furnished by Versace. The hotel has a massive private beach and from every room you see the Adriatic.

Finally, in this chapter of the Batani story, Tonino managed to buy the pearl of Adriatic coast hotels, the internationally-renowned Grand Hotel in Rimini this acquisition completed the the Batani Group in Italy and together with their hotel in Cluj, Transylvania the five star Grand Hotel Italia, the international doors are open for the Batani family.

The Batani family are true Romagnolo – they live in Italy’s beautiful heart between Venice and Florence, the Apennines and the Adriatic. And they share the true Romagnolo passion for great food and wine combined with open-hearted hospitality. Maybe this is the secret of success in tourism and the dividends that Tonino, Luciana and their heirs have ploughed back into their very sustainable dream..

Valere Tjolle

Valere is editor and publisher of Sustainable Tourism 0.2 which deals with travel and tourism and climate change, overtourism, art and tourism and green destinations amongst other sustainable tourism issues.