Astrus business hotel: heading for modernization

One of the most famous hotels of the waning years of the Soviet era — The Central House of Tourist, which was built for the 1980 Olympic Games — has been given a new life lately. During Perestroika the hotel that previously specialized in official delegations and offered accommodation for foreign tourists who came to Moscow in the line of foreign trade unions, experienced a deep crisis. But the right management and a large-scale reconstruction that changed not only its infrastructure, but also the very spirit of the Central House of Tourist allowed it to win back the status of a successful Moscow hotel. Today, after renovation it bears the name «Astrus». Not long ago the hotel completed ABT’s business hotel attestation program and officially proved its compliance with business travellers` requirements. The hotel’s commercial director Andrey Mikhalets and general manager Tatiana Samokhina told ABT’s reporter about new facilities and service standards.

— It should be admitted that you have got a rather weighty bundle of the past after the Soviet era. Tell us how the hotel has changed for the past few years in order to meet tourists` requirements.

— (TS) You used a very interesting expression — «the bundle of the past». We do have a great history. The hotel used to be new and modern in the 80-ies, just as the Kosmos Hotel. And very fashionable. We had a small restaurant with a panoramic view on the 33rd floor — a total of 150 seats, but you could hardly get there. But 4 years ago we finally decided to break with the past and started reconstruction of the hotel — not only of the building, but of the business as a whole. And 2 years later we organized the notorious retro-party, «Good-bye, Sovok!». It took place in that very restaurant on the 33rd floor, just under the roof.

Now 98% of rooms have been modernized, the hotel meets all world standards and one of the floors has VIP category. The central hall has been totally renewed: there is a new lobby café and a beer restaurant where we have live game casts. There are new lifts in the building. Approximately 50% of the hotel territory has central conditioning; all rooms are equipped with a modern fire alarm. The restaurants have changed completely, two of them have already opened and the third will be ready by June this year. Congress halls have been built almost from scratch. There are four of them: from 100 to 400 seats. Now there are winter gardens between the halls, we plan to close the gardens with a glass roof. It will allow us to remove walls and to make the halls transformable.

— I have noticed that you give the hotel’s previous name in all official information, but you stress, that the «Astrus» is a new hotel. Do you maintain this balance to promote your brand? Does the famous soviet name help do business today?

— (TS) The name «The Central House of Tourist» is well recognized now as before and works very well. Everyone knows it, so we are not going to abandon it, of course. If we could transform the previous name into an easy reading abbreviation that would be suitable for electronic payment sites, we would not have changed it probably. But the task turned out to be impossible and four years ago we decided that a rebranding was necessary. We chose the name «Astrus» — «the Russian star». It is now our trade brand, and «The Central House of Tourist» is our legal name.

— In Soviet times mainly foreign tourists stayed in your hotel. What is the ratio between Russian and foreign travellers today?

— (TS) Nowadays about 40% of our guests are foreigners, with this percentage growing steadily.

— Due to what? Is the «Astrus» present in international booking systems?

— (TS) Of course, almost in all of them. We have joined Spanish marketing network Hotusa and work with world leading electronic operators — Booking, HRS and many others.

— Some travel experts voice concerns that branded hotels influence corporate buyers too much. What do you think about global brands domination? How can independent hotels survive in these conditions?

— (AM) It depends on the positioning we choose. Large networks focus mainly on global contracts. The amount of local bookings is not large in such hotels, if we speak about sales n general, and not only about MICE-events. One of the main advantages of independent hotels is the lack of sales polices, strict brand requirements and other restrictions. We are more flexible. World networks sometimes have absurd requirements. Sometimes a hotel may pay fines to its brand intentionally in order to do something that is included into its marketing plan. Independent hotels are free of all this. We do not consider ourselves discriminated in any way. It is pure competition. It is good when lots of brands of different categories are present in the market, so we can adopt practices or on the contrary, share our local practices with those who need it.

— Nowadays the main amount of corporate buyers is provided due to decisions taken in headquarters or due to specialized RFP sites. Do you adopt such practices?

— (AM) We are not isolated from these processes and work in the RFP system. If we receive an order, it means that we meet the requirements to location, budget or other demands of corporate buyers. Indeed, we receive fewer clients because they are distributed on a higher global level. At the same time we participate in electronic systems that place such requests.

— What are the main demand trends? What do corporate buyers stipulate in their requirements?

— (AM) I suppose, the main factor for them is the price. Everyone needs flexible and advantageous tariffs.

— Sometimes corporate buyers set requirements that are inconvenient for the hotel. Are you ready to make concessions in order to get the client?

— (AM) We stand for balance. It depends on the purchase decision — whether it is taken on a local or a global level, our next steps depend on it. In the first case it is a local budget and the contract means a small one-time deal. If it is a global contract with tough conditions, the hotel must assess its potential. If it is high — why not make concessions. Because in this case neither cancellations nor post-payment system can make the contract unprofitable. We can make concessions if it is beneficial for us, because any enterprise must be efficient.

— Do you have different approaches to business travellers and tourist groups?

— (TS) Yes, there is a difference, of course. A business tourist needs certain facilities — it is a person who comes on business. And it means that the hotel should fully provide for all his needs. For example, at night his clothes have to be washed, trousers ironed and brought to his room. He should be waken up at a certain time and offered a substantial breakfast, sometimes very early in the morning, in accordance with his business schedule. We have to organize a transfer and to provide an opportunity to have visitors in the evening and a cozy atmosphere for dinner which promotes business talk. An ordinary tourist is a completely different case. A person who comes to have a rest alone or with his family needs a good breakfast, of course, but later. He does not need a transfer, but he needs excursions. There are lots of nuances like that and we are aware of them all.

— Does your hotel have loyalty programs?

— (TS) Yes, it is called «Astrus-bonus» and consists in transferring 10% of the room cost as bonus roubles to special plastic cards for our frequent guests. You can then spend this money on booking rooms or extra services. Our guests do like it a lot. Because if you spend even one day in the hotel, next time you will be able to order late check-out, for example, and you can pay for it with your bonus roubles. There are special options for travel-managers, but I won’t speak about it now — let it be a small intrigue.

— The «Astrus» has a corporate blog. Do you think that hotel promotion through special media is prospective? Will it pay off?

— (AM) We do not think that social media can be monetized quickly and easily. There are no instruments that would allow our colleagues to get bookings or offline orders through such network resources. At the same time internet provides the broadest shotgun approach and forms the right informational basis for the so called «leads» and turn that could readers into guests. We are trying to do it, but have not succeeded much yet. Most clients use specific social networks. It is hard to imagine how we can involve the audience with the help of Odnoklassniki, for example. On the other hand, many of our clients do not use Facebook, where the «Astrus» has its page. So we are conducting a survey to identify resources with maximum involvement. It is obvious that it makes no sense keeping 7-10 accounts simultaneously, all our expenditures for PR experts will be useless. We should find out the audience and the instruments it uses. Now we are in search of a decision.

— I can see that there is a vivid guest book on your site, and it changes all the time. As far as I understand, feedback with guests is a separate area of your work, isn’t it?

— (TS) Yes, it is definitely so. And note: we publish not only positive, but also negative opinions. Our quality committee has weekly meetings, where every guest’s opinion from out guestbook or TripAdvisor site is analyzed, not formally, but meaningfully, and discussed and reacted to in due time. The committee’s aim is not only to give answers to our guests, but also to prevent similar negative opinions. The problem must be solved.

— The «Astrus» completed ABT`s Business Hotel Attestation program not long ago and proved its status of a business hotel. Did you meet all the requirements at the beginning of this procedure?

— (TS) ABT has extensive requirements. I can not say that the attestation procedure turned out to be a problem, but we had to finish some small details, so I estimate this project as difficult in general. We spent about 3 months on it. For example, there is such a point in the program as window latch stops. We have a multistorey building. You can not access windows in the room — there is a working desk in front of it, and it can be used as a table, a TV stand or a niche for a mini-bar. But ABT requirements are strict — window latch stops must be available. There are 500 windows. And it had to be done by all means.

Or I can give another example. We have electronic safes in all junior suites, suites and comfort rooms. But according to the requirements all rooms for business tourists must be equipped with safes. Of course, mini-safes are not expensive, but we have 500 rooms, I repeat. Sockets were a bit of an issue as well. There is a requirement that seems simple at first sight, that sockets must be near the working desk. The repair has been finished, and the sockets are situated neat the floor skirting, which is more than a meter away from the table. It means that we had to redo everything.

I can not say that we have fulfilled all the attestation requirements so far. All recommendations are taken into consideration. Due to the large amount of work we are doing all this gradually, floor after floor.

— What is the marketing value of the attestation procedure, in your opinion?

— (AM) We will use the certificate as an additional filter on the retail market. If you just try booking a hotel in Paris, Berlin or Amsterdam you will see that it is really difficult to make a choice: all hotels have Wi-Fi, they are in the centre, offer good prices and have good guest reviews. They will all be approximately the same. So today customers need additional guides. I suppose, Moscow market will grow, as well as the European market, and filter criteria will inevitably affect retail sales.

As for the wholesale market, we have published information about our business hotel certificate in all open sources available. We are planning workshops for our sales specialists to teach them how to use the benefits of the certificate. Employees must correctly explain to the customers that the hotel is heading for modernization and one of its intermediate results is the fact that it has proved its business hotel status. The next step may be higher category. We try to let our frequent customers understand our course and appreciate us as a stable and a reliable partner.

— By the way, the 3 stars that are on the front of your hotel — are they officially confirmed?

— (TS) We have passed the procedure of state rating. Yes, we are a three star hotel, but unlike some hotels, whose names I will not mention, the «Astrus» tends to give more than clients expect. When guests arrive and see that the porter takes their luggage to their room immediately, when they have an opportunity to appreciate our service, they understand that our hotel meets the highest standards. We suppose that the difference between three and five stars consists only in the fact that in a three star hotel there are extra services that guests pay for, and in a five star hotel the price includes everything. As for the rest, they are basically similar. There is no any other difference. Service must be on the highest level in any hotel, otherwise it does not have the right to receive guests.

Svetlana Denikina