Nelly Mavrina: requirements of business tourists were taken into account at the stage of hotel construction

According to Nelly Mavrina, HR-director of the Moscow hotel «The Garden Ring», one of the main components of a successful hotel is an ability to create a cozy atmosphere. Another ingredient of success includes technologies that make it possible to meet all the requirements of modern travellers, and especially those of business tourists, if the hotel is marketed as a business hotel. The hotel’s absolute compliance with business travellers demands is confirmed by the Russian Association of Business Travel (ABT) certificate. RATA-news Business Travel correspondent could feel the atmosphere of this hotel first-hand when she visited it.

— Nelly, there’s an impression that «The Garden Ring» is situated in a historic building.

— The building is brand new and it fits the space so well, that many of our guests think it was renovated. There really used to be a manor at the site, there was a municipal parking here for a long time. But after the hotel opened it seems that it has always been here.

— Was the building initially intended for a hotel?

— Yes, and it was our great advantage. To do everything properly from the very beginning is much easier, than to do everything over. The hotel infrastructure was planned at the stage of the project, which allowed us to use the most advanced technologies available in hotel construction. «The Garden Ring» provides an efficient dust removal system and noise proofing, display boards in rooms and halls, let alone safety systems and other components necessary for a modern hotel to function properly. From the start we took into account the requirements that the state hotel classification system sets for a four-star hotel, so we did not have to do anything over. The inspection of the Russian Association of Business Travel also confirms that «The Garden Ring» fully meets the criteria necessary for obtaining the «business hotel» certificate. The needs of business travellers were taken into account at the stage of construction because we focused on this group of tourists from the very beginning.

— What is the percentage of business travellers in your hotel?

— 80% on the average. There are 85 rooms in our hotel and today we are fully booked — we have 145 guests. But you won’t see any of them in the lobby during the day because the vast majority comes to our capital on business. But the guests staying from Friday to Sunday usually come on vacation, to see Moscow, go shopping and to relax in our SPA-centre. However, some business travellers also stay on weekend.

— What are the main sales channels that allow to attract business travellers?

— We have signed corporate agreements with more than a hundred companies, which accounts for approximately a quarter of the hotel occupancy. It guarantees a certain amount of room sales throughout the year. Due to long-term relations we know our clients well, they stay in our hotel frequently, after all.

Online booking makes for 23% of guests, 27% is provided by agencies. Another 25% is rack-rate booking which includes rooms ordered by phone or through the hotel’s web-site.

— What does a hotel need to be chosen for corporate agreements?

— First of all, you need a corporate manager — an employee with excellent communication skills and fluent English. Our managers are motivated not only by their sales amounts, but also by the quantity of contracts signed. If our corporate guests remain satisfied, the contract is usually prolonged at the end of the year, and the number of rooms often increases.

Corporate clients often share information with each other and recommend a good hotel to their partners. For example, we have many guests from Japan and agreements with Japanese companies. When choosing a hotel, the Japanese bear in mind only their fellow countrymen opinion, and Japanese companies often convey information about us from one to another. In our turn, we rate guests from that country very high, as they are people with a high level of culture.

— Where else do your clients come from? What is the ratio between foreign and Russian guests?

— Our frequent guests come from Germany, Italy, France, Spain. On some days our hotel is occupied by foreign tourists only. As for Russia, we have contracts with companies from large regional centres; these are mainly cities whose population exceeds 1 million people.

— What do business travellers require from a hotel?

— These requirements are specified in detail in the ABT`s hotel certification program. I fully agree that wi-fi is the major requirement for business travellers. So we provide free high-speed Internet in all rooms and hotel zones. For example, when changing their location from rooms to the restaurant our guests used to change password. That took only a few seconds, but nevertheless we considered it inconvenient and changed the system. Now our guests are not distracted by such minor things when they move around in the hotel.

Copy cervices are also crucial. We provide free copying at all hours of the day and in any quantity. In general, round-the-clock service is another important requirement for a business hotel. A mini-bar in the room is very important, as well as a well-equipped and a comfortable working place. Besides, busy clients need to relax. Our SPA-centre, swimming-pool and massage rooms are always filled to capacity in the evenings.

— How many employees are there? Are there any specific aspects of you work with business travellers? How do you headhunt and train employees?

— At the moment the hotel, the restaurant and our SPA-centre are attended by 105 people altogether, and we are proud to admit that the employee turnover is low. The hotel’s rate at booking.com is 9.1 — it is worth much and is entirely our personnel’s achievement. A very important factor is deep understanding of our guests. If someone is in a hurry, all services should be provided as quickly as possible. Others, on the contrary, need attention and conversation. The staff should be able to feel such nuances.

It is very important for the personnel to complement each other from the point of view of their temperament and personal qualities. For instance, several leaders in one area of activity can cause conflicts. The correct selection of personnel is one half of success. The other half is regular training. When you deal with business travellers, it is very important to provide the guest with necessary information, for example, about the nearest banks or the office he needs. You mush be able to address his or her needs in due time.

Two foreign languages are obligatory for all the employees in the contact zone — reception, waiters, barmen and door attendants. In march we are starting a kind of an experiment — professional communication skills in Chinese. After all, more and more Chinese business travellers come to Moscow every year, it is a prospective market.

— It turns out that you won business travellers first, and then obtained the «business hotel» certificate.

— Of course, the certificate will help hotels that are only planning to enter the corporate travel market. As for us, this certificate is a confirmation of our abilities. An achievement like that is the best advertisement. We opened in early 2010, when the crisis aftereffects were rather strong and we did not just have enough funds for promotion. We managed to achieve good occupancy without advertisement and are very proud of that. But we are ready to make investments to confirm our status.