Haludovo hotel complex opened on 15 June 1972 on Krk island at a cost of 45 million dollars invested by Bob Guccione, owner of Penthouse Magazine.
12 Penthouse Pet models (promoted by Guccione as the “new soldiers of the Cold War”) were employed by the resort as hostesses and croupiers. 100 kg of lobster, 5 kg of caviar and hundreds of bottles of champagne were consumed each day by resort guests.
Guccione was not allowed to own and run the resort directly (Yugoslavian policy at the time was “worker self-management”, where employees themselves were in charge of day-to-day operations), but he would be allowed to take three to seven percent of the revenue.
Elevators are out of order!
June 1972 issue of Penthouse Magazine with a feature story about the casino. On cover is Yugoslavian Nevenka Dundek as Pet of the Month.
Anyone for bowling game?
Casino, known as the “Anglo-American Penthouse Casino”, was unfortunately restricted only to foreign gamblers. And those casino revenues were needed to fund the overspending hotel. The government also deprived the casinos of further revenue by not allowing entry to local Yugoslavian citizens. The Penthouse resort went bankrupt next year, on 1973.
For the next 20 years Haludovo resort carried on without Guccione as a worker-run enterprise backed by Brodokomerc company from Rijeka, discarding the Penthouse label but remaining a high-end resort. The downfall of the complex came with the end of the communist system and the Croatian War of Independence.
The war kept tourists away from the resort, whose last profitable year was 1990. Parts of the complex were used as refugee housing and many of the amenities were stripped. In 1999, an Armenian diamond merchant and hotel tycoon bought the hotel, but didn’t invest to reopen. Building is structurally intact, but for now it remains a vandalised shell or playground for paintball.
Outside pool
Inside pool open to outside
Saunas without ladies
One of hotel wings
Remnants of pillow party
Outside bowling alley
Mini golf
previous post
