One of Split's leading five-star hotels has just completed its first major refurbishment since opening. Hotel Atrium has been redesigned room by room, with all 129 rooms and bathrooms plus every shared space - the lobby, reception, bar, pastry shop, restaurant and wellness area - given a new look.
The work was led by designer Maja Buljan of LUMAR design, working with Cult, a Split-based furnishing group that has kitted out a long list of Croatian hotels. Buljan's brief was interior design with character, but deliberately restrained: her stated aim was for the luxury to be felt before it is seen. Cult handled everything from bathroom fittings to cladding, including the lobby fireplace, drawing on more than a hundred European brands it supplies and, in several cases, represents exclusively in Croatia.
The scale of the project is best captured by the numbers. Around 4,550 square metres of Laminam cladding went in, of which roughly 3,800 square metres were large-format slabs. Rooms got Berry Alloc flooring, while the bathrooms were treated as the priority: some 230 Laufen washbasins, Hansgrohe showers and mixers, Quare shower trays, Relax shower cabins and Etrusca mirrors. Cult's team points out that hotel bathrooms have to survive intensive daily use, so durability and maintenance were factored in from the start, not as an afterthought.
Behind the investment is Plavi Safir d.o.o., parent of the Safir Hotels group - Split's largest hotel operator, which also runs Amphora and Amphora's Garden. Executive director Bruno Nizić says the revamp is about more than fresh paint: the group is targeting formal 'Meetings' and 'Health and Fitness' certifications, aiming to grow Atrium's congress and wellness business and give travellers more reasons to visit Split outside the peak summer months.
Why should this matter to your travel plans? If you're heading to Split for business, a conference or a city-plus-spa break, Atrium is positioning itself as exactly that kind of base - and the town's biggest hotel group clearly wants to stretch the season beyond July and August. It also signals a broader trend: Dalmatian hotels are investing heavily in quality rather than just capacity, which raises the bar across the city's accommodation scene. Cult's wider portfolio - AC Hotel Split by Marriott, Hotel Ambasador, The Isolano Autograph Collection, plus properties on Hvar and in the Kvarner Bay - gives a sense of the standard now being chased locally.
If you're planning a Split trip, it's worth noting that a hotel like Atrium with modern congress facilities and a renewed wellness zone doubles up well in shoulder season, when the city is calmer but the weather still cooperates.
