As this year comes to an end, I’ve been doing a bit of thinking.

And honestly, 2025 has been a defining year for us.

We didn’t just have a good year. We had a foundational one. We beat every target we set. We became more structured. And most importantly, we truly started operating like a team and not just a group of people working in the same place.

We kicked off the year by joining Small Luxury Hotels of the World. That was the first plaque we put on the wall that genuinely reassured us we were doing it. We weren’t just kids with a dream of running a hotel anymore. Someone came, experienced what we’d built, liked what they saw, and welcomed us into a group I’ve admired for years as a traveler. That was a real moment of validation.

Not long after, we attended our first sales event in London. For the first time, we had to find a way to put words to the feeling of The Agora and then confidently sell it. That was new for us, and honestly, a little uncomfortable at first. But it turned out to be a huge win. The feedback from the industry was better than we could have hoped for. People described what we were building as “refreshing.” That’s a compliment I’ll never forget.

Then April came…and the curve started to flatten.

Something wasn’t working, and we could feel it. We started scratching our heads, asking tough questions, and digging into what we needed to fix. Price management became one of our biggest learnings of 2025. It was unfamiliar territory, but between long YouTube rabbit holes and conversations with people who truly understand the game, things began to click. And once they did, we turned that curve into a hockey stick.

From there, it was full gas.

One morning, I woke up and saw that a hotel I follow, Sanders in Copenhagen, had received a Michelin Key the night before. I remembered there was an award ceremony happening, but I’d brushed it off. I didn’t think a hotel in Cyprus would even be part of the conversation.

Out of pure curiosity, I clicked onto the Michelin website to see who else had been recognised.

I was sitting in the bar. Nic and Emilie were sitting across from me. I stood up and said,

“We f**king got a key.”

They thought I was joking. I had to show them the website before the belief set in.

Holy shit…what a day.

Socials started booming. Bookings started booming. But with that came a new kind of pressure. Because now we weren’t just “up and coming.” We were solidified as a hotel of quality. And that means that every single day, we have to keep pushing the boundary. Raising the bar. Protecting what we’ve earned.

And honestly…bring it on, 2026.

Before the year closes, I want to say this clearly:

My ideas are nothing but hot air without the people I work with every day. They are the ones who execute. They bring structure. They bring consistency. They bring the magic.

They are the Michelin Key.

They are The Agora Hotel.

Thank you for making this year what it was.

— Aleks