The FINANCIAL — Holiday Inn, the international four star hotel in Tbilisi, has seen 500 percent growth of its capacity over the last year. The hotel hosted more than 4,000 visitors in summer 2011 and more than 15,000 visitors in total during the year.
The FINANCIAL — Holiday Inn, the international four star hotel in Tbilisi, has seen 500 percent growth of its capacity over the last year. The hotel hosted more than 4,000 visitors in summer 2011 and more than 15,000 visitors in total during the year.
“The hotel comprised just three floors when it was first opened,” said Valeri Chekheria, General Director of Adjara Plus, which is managing Holiday Inn. “Now we occupy eighteen floors and are planning further expansion.”
“We have the burning ambition to be the top hotel in the market. Holiday Inn is a four star hotel but we are competing with five star hotels in terms of our high quality and standards. All the members of our top-management team are Georgians. We want to prove that Georgians have the ability to manage a premium class hotel and achieve great success. We are a good example of this,” he claims.
The hotel was opened a year ago. Average occupancy rate at the hotel was 75 percent throughout the year. It was the same in the summer as well. The hotel’s managers consider this a preferable result.
There are more than 3,000 hotels belonging to this brand worldwide. That includes four types of hotel: Holiday Inn, Holiday Express, Holiday Resorts and Holiday Inn Club. Ratings of the hotels are created annually.
“Ratings are created according to region,” Chekheria told The FINANCIAL. “Europe, Middle East and Africa have one rating list. We hold 36th place out of the 167 hotels in our group. This is a very good result considering this is our first year. However we aren’t satisfied with the result. We aim to be in the top three hotels next year. One main criterion for this rating is the satisfaction rate of clients, which is very high at Holiday Inn Tbilisi.”
The hotel hosts visitors of different age groups and social classes. The majority of them are foreigners, especially from Georgia’s neighbouring countries. We have many clients from Western Europe, America and Australia as well though.
“We host business delegations, representatives of international organizations and tourists,” he stated. “Business delegations are our most common guests. They stay longer than tourists usually. The majority of our visitors fill out service questionnaires. By referring to those we become aware of people’s opinions of our hotel. We rarely receive complaints. They are almost always about very trivial matters. For example one Chinese guest complained that rice wasn’t served at breakfast. In the case of more serious complaints, the hotel’s top managers discuss it as a matter of urgency and the problem is then solved in a matter of hours.”
The average price of a room at Holiday Inn is 180 USD excluding VAT and breakfast.
For New Year the hotel has a special offer. Any room will be available for 201.2 GEL from December 30 till January 8. The hotel’s administration is expecting full occupancy as a result.
“We are doing a New Year action not just for the benefit of our foreign guests but for Georgians as well. Any resident of Tbilisi can spend New Year’s night at our hotel for a very low price,” Chekheria said.
Adjara Group decided to found a new Holiday Inn in Batumi after the successful operation of the hotel in Tbilisi. Building has already started and the hotel will be opened in September 2012. The hotel will be a five-storey building with 200 rooms. There will be a swimming pool as well. The style and design of the hotel will be French, but Georgian designers will be responsible for it. The architect and managing team are Georgians as well.
“We think that there is still huge space for premium class hotels in Tbilisi as well as in Batumi,” the General Director said. “New international brands are entering the market every year. This proves that there is high demand for hotels. Otherwise such huge brands wouldn’t start operating in Tbilisi or Batumi.”
“Our entrance to the Tbilisi hotel market resulted in increased healthy competition among the hotels here. We are oriented at the highest quality and this has made our competitors increase their service quality as well,” he stated.
All international hotels present in Georgia are either four or five star hotels. According to Chekheria, every brand that is entering a new country will only start operations with one of its highest class hotels.
“After the market of premium class hotels is fully saturated, three star ones will start operating as well,” he added. “Such hotels will be in high demand as more and more people of all social classes visit Georgia.”
Adjara Group is founding the first Georgian hotel brand as well. Two hotels in the mountainous regions Borjomi and Kazbegi will be the first of this brand. The hotels will be opened by spring 2012.
“Local hotel brands are very popular and competitive compared to international ones in developed countries including in France, Italy, the USA, UK etc. We have the same ambition. We want to found a Georgian hotel brand oriented on high quality service. That will increase the quality of other local hotels as well. With our healthy competition we will support the Georgian market significantly. At the same time, I want these hotels to be competitors of Holiday Inn. As in my opinion it has the highest quality service in Georgia,” he explained.
Adjara group did research before choosing the regions. Kazbegi and Borjomi are the most visited resorts in Georgia and they really lack sufficient numbers of rooms for tourists.
“I visited Kazbegi several times before making my final decision,” Chekheria continued. “I saw that there were too many tourists there that many were actually camping. I then found out that they travelled with camping gear as there were no hotels to stay in. Therefore we chose those regions and two very beautiful and interesting hotels will be opened there soon.”
As well as the hotels that Adjara Group will own, the Georgian hotel brand will manage some other hotels as well. Chekheria claims that they have already received offers for this.
“Our managing team is so highly qualified and experienced that we can manage other hotels as well. We already have the ability to teach and train others, coordinate and monitor others’ work and help them achieve high quality service. I am especially proud of this because all of the members of the team are Georgian.”
Adjara Group plans to cover the whole of Georgia with local brand hotels and after that expand their business to neighbouring countries.
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