The FINANCIAL — The year 2011 has been quite successful for Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, one of the leading hotels on the market.
According to Atakan Turhan, General Manager of Radisson Blu Iveria, the hotel has much increased its market share during 2011. Due to increased demand, Radisson officials have started discussing plans for opening new hotels in Georgia. There are projects being discussed within both brands of the network, Park Inn by Radisson and Radisson itself. Mr. Turhan in an exclusive interview with The FINANCIAL said that hotel officials will soon have interesting news for guests.
“We observed especially high demands in the second part of the year. September and October were the busiest time for our hotel. We served many guests in these months. There were even some cases when we had to turn willing guests away from the hotel, as the hotel was completely full at that time that there were simply no free rooms,” Turhan said.
“The highest demand at our hotel is from the business segment. Compared to last year demand at our hotel has increased by about 45-46%. The largest percentage of our guests is citizens of the USA. Second place belongs to Georgians and then come the citizens of neighbour countries Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine,” Turhan said.
“The biggest events in the city are always held at our hotel. We have served a NATO conference, Economist’s conference and a couple of business forums recently. All of the most important events in Tbilisi are always held at the Radisson and we are very proud of that,” Turhan said.
According to Turhan big, important events are held at the hotel due to the fact that the hotel offers the best service in this regard.
“The capacity of the hotel is quite big which enables it to host such large events. We have the biggest capacity in the city and we can accommodate the largest scale conferences. The high level of the service, location and facilities that we offer are attractive for event organizers,” Turhan said.
“There are many plans for other hotels to be constructed in the city soon. To compete with these new hotels we will focus on our high level of service which is our key feature. We will always keep the best position in the city as the location of our hotel really is unique. We have a huge variety of competitive services as well, including a spa, casino and terrace. Each of these services is unique in the hospitality market in Tbilisi. We have certain advantages and we will always be number one in regards to those,” Turhan said.
“We are already famed for the Yes I Can service of the hotel. This service is a kind of slogan for our company. It’s a mix of international and Georgian hospitality. Our hotel appeals to most tourists as we offer them a wide range of services. We have the best view of the city from our hotel rooms, no matter which floor the room is located on. We offer two different bars which are already very famous for their cuisine and high level of service,” Turhan said.
Staff trainings are one of the top priorities of the hotel. The hotel pays much attention to its staff’s education and professionalism. The hotel conducts trainings in different directions.
“Trainings are an ongoing part of our hotel’s life. Due to the good professional skills some of our hotel staff members are even offered jobs at other hotels. It’s a natural process; when you have well qualified staff, your competitors always try to hook them. In such cases some of our staff do leave the hotel to develop their careers further. But most of them prefer to stay with us because they believe that their future is here with us. We are a fast developing company in Georgia. We are providing lots of opportunities inside and outside of the country,” Turhan told The FINANCIAL.
“Green business in our hotel is becoming more and more important as time passes. One of our main concepts is Responsible Business. Responsible Business includes the training of staff, our customers and shareholders in order to make them understand responsibility towards the community, nature and environment around us. We measure our consumption of water, electricity and waste production. We have targets to decrease them which we hope to achieve by consuming less and using energy more efficiently,” Turhan said.
Radisson Blu Iveria is famous for the modern design of its rooms. According to the General Manager of the hotel, they often receive compliments on their well designed rooms.
“The design of our hotel rooms is almost unique. Most of our guests are people who travel a lot and visit lots of different hotels. One of the most frequent comments from guests is that the design of our hotel is really exceptional. It doesn’t look like any other. It’s completely different; modern with a great deal of space. We have full windows from which beautiful views of the city are visible,” Turhan said.
“Our number one product is our comfortable beds. We offer people the famous Simmons brand of beds. We have certain standards for every item that we have in our rooms. We have textiles which are specially produced for our hotel specifically, the green and gold colours in our rooms are created using special materials. We use special products by Anne Semonin. As you know our spa is named Anne Semonin for the famous French cosmetic brand. These products are also available for sale in the spa’s reception area,” Turhan said.
“Ventilation in the hotel is always a challenge. People have different expectations. We have a four spring system ventilation which is quite advanced. Since the hotel is new we have only the latest technologies. 70% of the rooms in our hotel are non smoking. This is quite a big ratio of the rooms. Of course we want to increase this number but smoking isn’t banned in Georgia yet. Smoking in public areas in the building is allowed. I would be very happy to convert it to a non smoking hotel if the Georgian Government would also support this idea. Smoking regulations in other countries sound difficult to people at first, but for the moment everyone is happy including both smokers and non smokers,” Turhan said.
Radisson often serves ‘Mystery Guests’ who come to check the hotel’s service and accommodation. Radisson Blu Iveria received the highest score in Radisson Hotel Chain from its Mystery Guest last year. The General Manager of the Radisson Blu Iveria is also actively involved in checking the famous website TripAdvisor where he makes sure that guests remain content with the hotel.
“Internet technologies are becoming a huge part of our lives. People use the internet more and more often now. The hotel is a live organism for 24 hours a day and every month we serve around 5,000 people. Nobody can guarantee that 100% of the guests are happy. If something happens due to our mistake or something that we are responsible for, then we do our best to correct the mistake and improve that guest’s satisfaction. We always make sure that each of our guests is content with our accommodation. We often receive compliments and also some complaints on TripAdvisor, but most of the guests who have stayed at our hotel are content and advise others to visit us,” Turhan said.
According to Atakan Turhan, Georgia as a tourist destination is quite an interesting country. Advertising is the number one tool for making a country famous and popular among tourists.
“People should know what Georgia is able to offer. Easy flight connections and cheaper flights will also bring lots of tourists here. New hotels, new companies entering the market will improve the market conditions. Increased competition will increase the level of service as well. Whoever comes to Georgia always leaves with good impressions. The best advertisement is to make tourists content and happy. Then when they go back to their country they advertise much more actively and effectively than the country itself ever can,” Turhan said.
Radisson will in the future focus on service level and guest satisfaction. They will continue staff trainings. The hotel plans to host some New Year events in its ballroom, Filini restaurant and Oxygen Bar at the same time.
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