«OUR HOTEL IS A RESORT, BUT WITH GREAT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES»

Interview with Dmitry Makarov, the General Director of the «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» in Sochi
About management, about a unique hotel service, about Russian subtropics...

S. Your hotel offers a unique quality service in Russia. How did you achieve it?

D. We are making this on a daily basis. We can’t say that we have achieved this and stopped. It's everyday laborious work and only because of this, we can keep the high level. There are several components. First - work of a well coordinated team that understands the goals and objectives, and knows how these goals are achieved, with what tools. Second - is a product itself, which is well made, implemented, and is close to perfection. And the third – location of the hotel in a unique place: subtropics with a favourable climate.

S. What type of customers may be interested in this hotel? Tell me more about the length of stay and purpose of the trip, the status of guests and their expectations?

D. Two-thirds of our guests come to rest; the average duration of stay of guests is from 10 to 14 days and since they dominate in the general flow of tourists, average duration of stay is about 10 days. The next group of guests - corporate and mice-customers. The purpose of their trip can be an event held in the city, or a special event held at the hotel. Recently there has been a tendency of increasing the number of events in Sochi. It can be seen from the hotel sales and the demand for our conference rooms and banquet venues. There are quite a lot of visitors, who hold their private events: weddings, anniversaries, various family events, events connected with the ongoing exhibitions in the city, international and national organizations’ inspections of building the Olympic facilities, demonstration heats on the "Formula 1" cars and other large-scale urban events.

S. Sochi always plays host to large-scale events of the highest level and there’s a high demand for your hotel. How do you manage to accommodate guests so that nobody is left unattended and everyone is pleased?

D. We work with each guest individually. With the guests, who come to our hotel year after year, we exchange letters, get in touch on the phone, warn them about the events, but they themselves know that our hotel must be booked in advance.
For example, World Economic Forum in Sochi this year was held for the 10th time. This year we had almost all the same guests who stayed at the hotel last year; they booked the rooms during the Economic forum in 2010.

S. How do you build a system of management at the hotel? Is there a concept of "quality control"?

D. The management system at the hotel is built on different motivational components, including result-oriented motivation, and quality-oriented motivation. Quality control process is constant at different levels: horizontally and vertically. So if something happens, it is immediately noted and subsequently executed, to prevent recurrence. And practicing the situation, we reach its perfection.There is a “Golden Book of Standards of “RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA”, in which all of the standards are prescribed for each department, and there are possible ways to decide an issue that may arise from staff. This allows you to make the right decisions quickly and accurately. We constantly try to confirm our staff’s knowledge of these standards - we pay a great attention to training and education of employees of the hotel at the highest level.

S. «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» is situated at the largest recreational resort area. Are there any specifics of hotel management, which is located in such places? And how does the pronounced seasonal prevalence impact on the management of the hotel?

D. We try to smooth over the seasonal prevalence with different methods, and hotel sales problems gradually disappear. There are several factors that allow us to achieve this. First of all, it's the product itself, we are working on it making special offers. Secondly, development of the city of Sochi: investment in infrastructure of the city makes it possible to come here not only in summer but also in winter: theatres, cinemas, restaurants, cafes, and shopping. Thirdly, development of the resort Krasnaya Polyana. We have guests who like to ski in the mountains, and stay at our hotel, despite the fact that they spend30-40 minutes on the road every day.
If we talk about the business segment, the number of guests that come to Sochi on a business trip in the off-season greatly increased in recent years. This is due to the implementation of various business projects, public programs and events in the city. The flow of business travellers currently in Sochi is fairly stable, both in winter and summer. And every hotel in Sochi, including «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» receives its share of visitors in this segment.

S. Our website writes about mice-market. Do you have any offers for this segment? Don’t you think that in Russia concepts of luxury and mice are often combined?

D. There is a clear segmentation of the market, both in terms of service customers, and professionals of this market. People who sell hotel services are well aware of their client and his needs, they know what the visitor must have for breakfast, how his holiday should be organized, what items must be present in the equipment of his hotel room. Knowledge "of your clientele" allows you to find it unmistakably. So, if you hit the nail on the head and create your hotel product correctly, then your object will be successful, including terms of attracting MICE-business. This is true for the hotels of any level, from luxury to budget.
If we talk about the events that take place at the site of «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA», then they are mostly events for top managers of companies.
If you look at this product and compare it with other mice-venues, it will become absolutely clear that your event will be something exceptional. Of course, the place itself emphasizes the status of the event. Selecting «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» as the site for the event says that the organizers highly appreciate its participants.
For MICE-guests, we are ready to offer a wide variety of venues, as well as we are ready to carry out any request of the customer. For example, such a complex event as the regatta or other event on open water can be arranged by contacting the hotel directly. We will find inner resources with which these projects can be implemented by our staff.
This is our competitive advantage - unlike other hotels we are very flexible in providing unconventional services. We try to help a guest to get everything he needs in one place. This is the feature our guests know and thanks to which they recommend us to others.
With regard to mice-services that we offer it must be noted that there are completely different types of menu, suggestions for coffee breaks, and there are rooms of various sizes and capacities. At venues of «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» you can arrange both evening format events and business events. Everything will be done as guests wish. And having a great experience, we'll show and help to make the event unforgettable. We held fashion-shows over the pool, beach parties and such outstanding events like the Presentation of application of Sochi for participation in the Olympics, 2014, Presentation of application of Sochi as a member of the FIFA World Cup 2018, meetings of FIFA. These events are completely diverse and this diversity allows us to embrace a large segment, which is called mice.
The hotel is a resort, and there is a big plus. Companies often have a good look at it when they choose a hotel for incentive trips for their employees. «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» is more often preferred to foreign hotels with similar conference venues. Here we make a worthy competition. Our hotel is a resort, but with great business opportunities.

S. You travel a lot around the world, speak at international conferences and congresses, exchange experience with foreign colleagues. Is there a fundamental difference in the management of the hotel with foreign or Russian management? What experience is most effective at the moment?

D. I don’t see a principal difference in the management of the hotel. We are very close to the classical scheme of management of the hotel, patterned after the international scheme. This is applied to the construction of structural units, and levels of making decisions - we follow the standards, which are laid down in the hotels of international level.
If we talk about personnel management, an important here is combination of good discipline and opportunities for the creative development of every person working at the hotel. Sometimes it is difficult to observe. Sometimes you want to go in the direction of strict discipline. But allowing people to creatively realize themselves, we get the output luxury product of very high quality. A General Manager, who is able to create a strong balance in team management between discipline and creativity to the work of each employee, achieves the best results.
When selecting staff, we pay special attention to such quality as desire to communicate. If he does it with pleasure, then it is one of the main criteria for selection. We give people an opportunity to discover their inner potential and find the department, in which they can grow, implement their plans and receive pleasure from their work.
Our people are very hospitable, but they do not always show it, and they are sometimes even afraid to show it. We try to make it clear from the outset.

S. Will the hotel policy change with the upcoming Olympics?

D. Positioning of the hotel at the market will not change. The product is formed, it is decent, popular and there is no sense to change it even for such large events like the Olympics. It is difficult to reproduce such products as «RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA». It will be difficult to create a similar product for several reasons. We are not talking about our own accomplishments, but about the legacy that we inherited: a large area, a modest number of rooms, plus a level of facility that we were able to create. As for the business model, it is quite difficult to realize it now.
«RODINA Grand Hotel & SPA» is a unique product, which has no analogues either in Russia or in the international market. But I would like very much to see more of them, especially in Russia; the more hotels of this level there are in Sochi, the sooner this segment, culture, service and professionalism will develop.

Mice.ru editor Svetlana Lugovaya